Insanity
by PossessedJoker
Summary: Jerome Valeska Gilbert. Meet Elena Gilberts crazy older brother. When he dies he gets stuck on the other side and dragged into the prison world with Bonnie and Damon. This is the story of how he meets Kai Parker and chaos is born. Follows most of Vampire Diaries plot line and some of Gothams. You don’t need to have seen Gotham to understand this story as the character is only
1. Hello

Hey! Welcome to my new story Insanity! Please comment and vote. I love feedback as it really helps me improve.

This book will have violent themes so if you don't like that, I suggest you don't read.

Whilst this book does have Jerome Valeska as the main character you don't have to watch Gotham to be able to read this. If you watch Gotham you will see many connections but you don't need to watch it to understand this book.

There may be spelling mistakes in this, my laptop is currently broken as the keys keep sticking and not clicking properly.

Please enjoy!


	2. Epilogue

"You all could go insane with just one bad day."

-Jerome Valeska


	3. Song List

Gasoline - Halsey

"Are you deranged like me? Are you strange like me? Lighting matches just to swallow up the flame like me? Do you cal yourself a fucking hurricane like me? Pointing fingers cause you'll never take the blame like me?"

Serial Killer - Lana Del Ray

"Baby, I'm a sociopath, sweet serial killer on the warpath cause I love you jut a little too much."

Hit and Run - Lolo

"You were just a little store away that stabbed her way to save herself, you ways liked the taste of blood and I get off when I point a gun. It's so good to have someone to be so bad with."

Monster - Imagine Dragons

"If I told you what I was, would you turn your back on me? And if I seem dangerous, would you be scared?"

Crazy=Genius - Panic! At The Disco

"If crazy equals genius then I'm a fucking arsonist, I'm a rocket scientist, if crazy equals genius. You can set yourself on fire but you're never gonna burn, burn, burn."

Monsters - Ruelle

"You've got no place to hide and I'm feeling like a villain, got a hunger inside. One look in my eyes and you're running cause I'm coming towards you alive."

Dysfunctional - Tech N9ne

"I'm a little dysfunctional, don't you know? If you psh me it might be bad. Get a little emotion, don't you know? Might fool around and make me mad. Don't make me mad."

Teen Idle - Marina and the Diamonds

"I wanna stay inside all day, I want the world to go away. I want blood, guts and chocolate cake, I wanna be a real fake."


	4. Death

Death is dull. Trust me, I should know. It wasn't until my second time dying that it got entertaining. You see, on my second time dying I got sucked into a prison world with loverboy and witchy. There I met someone else who was free, free like me. Leave it to dying to show you someone fun. His name is Kai.

"This place is going down, isn't it?"

"It is."

They stood holding each others hands, both with sombre tones, knowing they would never get to go back to Elena and Jeremy.

"I'm sure there are a million people we would both rather be with right now. But..." Bonnie muttered looking down at their enclosed hands as the world collapsed around them.

"A couple thousand at most" Trying to lighten the impossibly dark atmosphere. Alone as the world crumbled and tore around their still figures.

Jerome's hands clasped onto their stiff shoulders, permanent smile etched onto his face, "I dunno guys, you seem like pretty good company."

Bonnie and Damon jumped, momentarily forgetting about the insane red head who was laughing manically. Glaring at him as they waited for the inevitable pain.

"Ugh screw Enzo for killing me, again. Death is so...dull." Jerome trailed off while shivering at the boredom of death.

"Do you think it will hurt?" Bonnie questioned, completely blocking out the ginger maniac who was currently cursing about not being able to create a legacy and stupid vampires ruining his fun.

"I don't kn-"

Nothing. Blank. Emptiness.

"Huh?"

Jerome snickered as Damon and Bonnie awkwardly separated their hands. The three of them were stood in the exact same place, the same forest as if nothing had happened.

They weren't dead.

"Well that got awkward fast." Damon coughed, looking anywhere but Bonnie, causing Jerome to break into a fit of laughter.

"Shut up Jerome!"

"What happened? Where is everybody?" Bonnie, always the curious one.

"It doesn't matter doll face, we're alive!" Jerome shouted whilst spinning with his hands above his head.

"Call her that again, I'll rip your throat out with my teeth."

"Touchy touchy lover boy. Don't get your fangs in a twist. Ha." Bonnie walked off, sick of the bickering, hoping to find out where everone was.

"Where you going? Hey!"

The streets empty, void of life, not a sound to be heard. They continued walking down the familiar road, hoping to stumble across one of their friends.

"Well, I feel a fang. I'm still a vampire."

"Ah...yep I still want to burn you alive. I'm still sane. Whoosh that was lucky, can't have me turning into a cog. Ugh, just the thought, imagine me as a cog? Jeez I'd be like you. Can you even imagine wh-"

"Shut the hell up before I make you!" Damon yelled, vamp speeding him into the wall of a nearby house, fuming at the non stop comments.

"BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!"

"Wow Bonnie, didn't know you had a temper. Meh, who am I kidding of course you do. Damn that was kinda hot, do it again!" Jerome barely finished his sentence before Damon punched him in the face and stepped back, putting an arm around Bonnie protectively. Blood running down his face from his nose he burst into sinister laughter, not even flinching at the pain.

Bonnie and Damon continue walking, venturing into the town square, leaving Jerome on the ground barely breathing from laughing so hard.

"Either I'm a dead vampire or Mystic Falls is no longer magic free." Damon observed making Bonnie roll her eyes.

"Look." She pointed out. The Mystic Grill, a heaping pile of burning rubble only an hour ago, now stood proud in front of them.

"I definitely blew that up about an hour ago."

"Oh I know, I was there. Funny. Could not resist seeing Elena go up in flames, truly a beautiful sight." Jerome laughed catching up to them, still bleeding.

"Why don't we see any people?" Clearly disturbed by the oldest Gilbert, Bonnie ignored him whilst Damon glared daggers.

"If we're still on the Other Side, we should at least be able to see the living."

Growing nervous Damon answered with the same level of fear and paranoia, "Where the hell are we? And I don't mean geographically."

"I have no idea."

"Huh you guys are soo boring! Where are we? Whats happening? Why did you kill that guy? So many annoying questions. Well see ya." Jerome grinned, walking in the direction of the school, ignoring Bonnie and Damon.

"No, nope, no way are we trusting you to wander off on your own. You are coming with us whether you want to or not." Damon stated snarkily whilst he grabbed Jerome's upper arm. He didn't have time to blink before a kitchen knife was stabbed into his chest and turned, blood immediately pooling on his shirt as Bonnie gasped in horror and stepped back. Jerome grinned sadistically as he watched Damon groan before he pulled it out, the wound healing straight away, causing Jeromes smile to drop into a pout of dissapointment.

"Aww I hate healing powers. Make everything so-" Before he could continue to whine, Damon knocked him out and threw him over his shoulder, turning to Bonnie and smiling.

"I may not be able to kill him, Elena still seeing redemtion in him and all, but I can still shut him up. Lead the way Bon-Bon."

"Ugh how many more streets are we gonna wander? He's heavy." Damon groaned, the sun beating down on his back whilst Jerome hung over his shoulder unconscious.

"You're a vampire Damon, you have super strength, stop complaining. You're the one who knocked him out in the first place, how hard did you hit him?" Bonnie said, growing annoyed at his constant questions about where they were going.

"He stabbed me! He could have tried to stab you Bonnie, would you rather me have not knocked him out?" Damon responded condecedingly.

"There's something wierd about these cars." Bonnie said whilst sighing at Damons antics.

"Yeah, they're all almost 20 years old or more and yet they look brand-new." They both looked around their surrounding suspiciously, Damon affectionately stroking the hood of a sleek silver car as they passed.

They both froze, disbelief running through their veins, as they saw the last sight they ever expected to see again. Elenas house. The house Jerome burned down in anger at the realisation that Jeremy was dead and it was not by his hand. The white fortress which held so many precious memories of childhood and family, the house which caged the memories of Jerome planning something that changed the Gilbert family forever, the house which protected some of Elenas first encounters with the Salvatore brothers. The house which now stood tall, proud, majestic in font of their eyes. An innocent red cart lay on the emerald grass.

"And that is Elenas not-so-burnt-to-a-crisp house." Damon concluded as they walked closer, inspecting the discovery, Bonnie stooping down to pick up a rolled up newspaper from the grass. Opening it and furrowing her eyebrows as horror dawned on her face.

"...Damon? Look." She breathed, her features sculpted into shock.

"Hmm?" He leaned closer, shifting the unconsious body a little, trying to get a closer look at what caused such a reaction from Bonnie.

"Rare solar eclipse expected to be seen across 12 states. Huh, I didn't know there was a solar eclipse coming."

"The date." Bonnie uttered, rolling her eyes in pure frustration, barely stopping herself from calling him an idiot.

"May 10th...1994. Is that...are we-?"

"Yeah. It's impossible right? Damon?"

"I don't think we should be asking where we are," Damon began, his eyes on the rapidly darkening sky as the sun was blacked out by the sudden eclipse. "I think we should be asking about when we are."

A/N

The Jerome in my Story will be a mix of all season Gotham Jeromes but he will look like season 3/4 Jerome.


	5. May 10th 1994

Jerome stirred as Damon strode up the front steps of the house, unceremoniously dropping his body onto the creaky porch swing, Damon following suit and laying back to gaze at the roof of the porch. Bonnie sat on the front steps, trying to quell the tears from leaking out, trying to stay strong.

"I wonder if there's any booze in this empty retroville." Damon hummed swinging back and forth, jostling Jerome out of his forced slumber.

"It feels so weird to be back here. I practically grew up on this porch." She finally spoke, managing to stay strong and overcome it, leaning back and planting a fake smile on her face, slowing growing more real as memories of her childhood flashed before her eyes.

"Huh. What was it like having to grow up with him? Traumatic? Insane? Disturbing?"

"Jerome wasn't always like this...he always had issues but he never hurt anybody. I mean, sure, he would occasionally say something in a disturbing manner or laugh at something he shouldn't have laughed at but it wasn't until he started to distance himself more and more did we realise there was something not quite right about him. He was always alone, everyone bullied him psychically and mentally, including his parents. We followed him once, it was stupid and immature but Elena wanted to play a trick on him, it wasn't until we were in the middle of the woods did we realise our mistake. To our horror, he sliced a squirrels head off, and threw it at Elena. He knew we had followed him, he knew we were there. From then on we just kinda migrated as far away from his as possible. He snapped when he was 17, I guess he just reached his breaking point."

It was silent for a few seconds, Bonnie shivering at the memories and Damon reflecting on the new information, until a spine chilling laugh echoed the porch. Bonnie and Damon freezing and turning towards a now awake and laughing Jerome.

"Good times. I never knew you payed attention to me Bon-Bon, I'm touched. Hey! Didn't I burn this place down ages ago?" He tilted his head, slumped against the seat and laughing again whilst staring at the house.

"Try anything, I'm knocking you out again." Damon warned whilst turning his body so that he was angled towards Jerome, in place to stop him at any instance.

"Aright, alright, loosen up lover boy." Jerome began, mockingly raising his hands in a surrender motion, "I'm not gonna try anything until I get bored and you guys are soo entertaining it is hilarious! Where are we anyway?"

"1994. No idea how we got here." Damon breathed, clenching his jaw and hands turning into fists. "All right Bonnie, talk me through it, distract me from killing him."

"Before the Other Side collapsed my grams said she made a sacrifice so I could find peace." Bonnie began, rolling onto her side to face them.

"Ooo sacrifice. I like sacrifices, they're so funny." Jerome giddily stated as Damon rolled his eyes and ignored him, yet again.

"The part where you actually have a theory."

"Well, this clearly isn't peace. Otherwise, I wouldn't be stuck here with you. I highly doubt ginger snap over there would even be able to find 'peace'."

"Rude." Jerome and Damon said at the same time, both glaring at the other with murderous looks.

"She must have, I don't know...sent me somewhere. When I held your hand and he grabbed my shoulder, I took you both with me." She sighed, looking at their surroundings.

Jerome lazily stood up from the seat and bounced down the stairs on the wet grass, dancing as he reached the little red cart which lay untouched and dirty and he then glanced at the other toys littering the yard, pretty dolls and bouncy balls, all in perfect clean condition. Sighing as he started to snicker as he was consumed into a memory of his little red cart as Bonnie and Damon continued talking, however making sure they watched him like a hawk.

"Well, did she happen to whisper a safe word in her last breathes? A clue, maybe? A witchy path out of here?" Sarcastic as always he leaned forward and watched Jerome inspect the toy.

Crossing her arms, trying to decide what she is most frustrated at: Damon, Jerome or the situation. "No. But if we got here by magic, magic should be able to get us out."

"And that frown that is not upside down is telling me what?"

"Little witchy doesn't have her witchy powers anymore. Ha. A witch without witch powers. How dull." Jerome trailed off into thought as Bonnie narrowed her eyes at a nearby candle on the table and concentrated.

"Phesmatos incendia." Raising her arm slightly, she sighed and then dropped it disappointed as Damon's expression dropped as he realised Jerome was right, unsure if he was more upset that they were trapped there as they had no magic or that he admitted that Jerome was right.

"Still can't do magic. Perfect." He dropped back into his seat, Bonnie leaning against a pillar, not realising their mistake until it was too late.

Bonnie gasped for air, choking on the bitter sticky liquid that rose from her throat, stumbling forward in shock. Damon barely managed to catch her before she collapsed to the floor. Panicking at the small knife which stuck out of her back he yanked into out, biting into his wrist and forcing it to her mouth. He prayed his blood would work fast enough as Bonnies eyes fluttered closed, small gasps emitting from her mouth as the blood ran down her throat. As she slowly healed Damon gently placed her on the floor as he stood, blood covered, his eyes darkening. Spinning around using vampire speed he lifted Jerome, who continued to cry with laughter, into the air by his throat chocking him. Jerome just continued to laugh, unnerving Damon by how raspy and nefarious it sounded. "I-I'm sensing anger." Before he could say anything else Damon, once again that day, knocked him out and dropped him to the floor before rushing back to a now fine Bonnie.

"BONNIE?! Come on! Talk to me, are you ok?!" He grabbed her shoulders helping her to sit up and eventually stand.

"I..I..yeah thanks. Wh-what do we do with him?" She stuttered, looking fearfully at the crumpled Jerome.

"We lock him up. We can't kill him and we definitely can not let him wander free. So, we lock him up."


	6. Locked up

The next day Jerome woke up with a groan, looking around him and laughing at his surroundings. The small dungeon like cell in the basement of the Salvatore boarding house, he had grown used to it, being confined in there for weeks after his precious baby sister turned her humanity back on. It was no surprise to him that she would turn it off, it was also no surprise that she would eventually turn it back on. He had fun though, while the scooby gang were busy trying to stop her and bring back her old, petty, boring self they were too busy to stop him having fun. He created his own little underground circus, he always loved the circus, and then he blacked out Mystic Falls by cutting their power source. He went on a hilarious murder spree. He laughed loudly, the sound echoing throughout the boarding house and alerting the other two occupants that he was awake as he reminisced.

"Yoo-hoo Damon?? I know you're there. You gonna let me out?"

Damon stepped into his line of vision, looking through the bars, hissing "You're gonna stay here, you lunatic. You stabbed Bonnie, you're lucky Elena doesn't want you dead or I would have ripped your head off by now."

"Ha that's funny. You're so boring. I could cure you, you know? The best cure is the laughing cure after all."

Turning away Damon scoffed and walked back up the stairs, Jerome's taunting laugh following him. Bonnie met him at the top of the stairs, having just come back from her house after picking up her Grams grimoire and her teddy, Miss Cuddles. She shook her head, shivering at the demonic laugh before they left for the kitchen.

After having been in the stuffy cell for over 12 hours Jerome grew bored and hungry. He could hear annoying music being blasted from the room above him and he smirked when he heard footsteps come down the stone steps to his new home. Damon appearing with a cautious look before opening the cell door and placing a plate of pancakes and bourbon on the small wooden table next to Jerome who currently lay against the lumpy mattress with his eyes closed and a wide grin on his scarred lips. Even with it being like that for many months, Damon would never get used to the way Jerome's face now looked, the skin sewn back on. Blatant white scars surrounding his face, the aftermath of the only thing holding his face on being staples. He had blackness under his eyes, probably from the dead skin cells, a wide bloody, grin stretched across his cheeks and his ginger hair spiked up.

"Here. Quick summary, we're stuck in a repeating look of May 10th 1994, doomed to relive a solar eclipse forever. Good news, you wont have to worry about that though because you're gonna stay down here, permanently. Until we can figure out a way for Bon-Bon to get her magic back, we are trapped. Enjoy solitary. I'm sure you can always talk to the voices in your head." Damon said with humour, enjoying Jerome's suffering. He turned his back, walking out the room when Jerome lunged at him and started snickering. Using his vampiric speed he managed to get out and slam the door in Jerome's face, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Oh Day-Day I don't have voices in my head. I don't need anyone telling me what to do. And if you don't let me out, I'm gonna show you exactly what I'm capable of."

"Good luck with that." It was Damon's turn to laugh as he headed back upstairs to Bonnie, Jerome pouting and lying on the floor gazing at the ceiling.

A while later Damon heard Jerome scream, using his raspy voice, "YOUR PANCAKES SUCK!"

2 Months had passed and Jerome was pissed. They had kept him caged up like an animal for 2 months. 2 FREAKING MONTHS! Each day was the same for him, Damon would bring him pancakes, which were horrible, he would hear Damon and Bonnie arguing which entertained him, sometimes Bonnie would show up when she was desperate for any interaction other than Damon but she would soon leave once she realised Jerome was way worse. Bonnie had yet to gain her magic back, annoying Damon to no end and provoking Jerome to mock her. He could hear them arguing again, he laughed and relished in the release from his boredom. He paused mid laugh as he heard the front door creak open. He knew it was not Bonnie or Damon because they were still arguing and if they had left they would have slammed the door. So who was it? He tilted his head when he heard footsteps and grinned when they quickly retreated back out the door.

They had a stalker. How fun he thought? He curiously wondered if the mysterious person knew he was there. Probably not. He had not left the basement since he arrived.

Jerome was planning an escape plan. He was bored and decided he wanted out, he wanted some fun. He just had to wait until the perfect moment, the moment they let him out for any short period of time. Of course they let him use the bathroom and shower but that was all in the basement, he needed upstairs. He would convince them of his innocent act just like he had Elena and when they turned their backs he would slit their throats. It was a good plan.

Another 2 months had passed and Jerome was growing impatient, his plan was taking too long. They were not letting him out. He could hear Damon bouncing something of a wall from somewhere above him so he called out.

"Damon? DAMON! COME ON! YOU CANT KEEP ME LOCKED UP FOREVER! LOOK I swear I wont try and kill you again, just let me out. Its a bad idea to leave me alone for so long with only my thoughts to keep me company. They made that mistake in Arkham. Ha."

Damon rounded the corner to his cell, an unimpressed look on his brooding face, clearly losing hope if ever leaving this hell hole.

"I can keep you locked up forever and I will. This isn't Arkham. So just shut up already. Your non stop laughter is VERY grating!" Damon snarled stepping closer to the bars which Jerome currently leant his head against.

"I also haven't had fresh human blood in 4 months so I suggest you STOP ANNOYING ME BEFORE I DECIDE TO TAKE A SIP FROM YOU!"

"So serious. Hey, tell you what, try threatening me again but this time try it with a smile?" Jerome tilted his head down and grinned, the evil look back in his eyes.

Damon sneered, about to respond until Bonnies voice rang through the house.

"DAMON?! WHERE ARE YOU?" Bonnie came racing down the stairs, taking two at a time, newspaper clutched in hand.

Wheezing slightly, she looked at Damon alarmed, flinching when Jerome's glare landed on her.

"Are you messing with me? Do you think this is funny?!" She accused Damon angrily.

"What the hell are you taking about Bonnie?" Damon replied, finally shifting his gaze from Jerome.

"27 Across, Old tounge twister, Eddie turned top 20 Eddie Vedder Pearl Jam. Yellow Ledbetter!"

"Well look who finally got it. What's the problem?" Damon asked rolling his eyes as Jerome watched eagerly with wide excited eyes, wanting a fight, some entertainment.

"I didn't finish this Damon!"

"Well I didn't!" They both slowly turned their heads to Jerome who was leaning his tilted head against the steel bars, grin stretched farther than usual.

"Well-ha-it wasn't me! I've been trapped done here all this time. Hey, about that, when are you gonna let me out? I pinkie swear to not do anything psychotic."

"Well, if it wasn't me and if it wasn't one of you then there must be some one else here. We're not alone." Bonnie muttered, eyes widening in disbelief and hope.

Soon after their little revelation they once again left Jerome alone, he heard them leave so he assumed they went to stock up on food or something, he didn't really care.

His thoughts moved onto imagining all the ways he could kill them, trying to settle on the most inventive way for when he finally does gut them.

He must have been lost in his gory thoughts for a while as he was only snapped out of it when he heard Bonnie and Damon return. He hoped he would get to have some fun soon.

Meanwhile, Bonnie and Damon were tying an unconscious Kai to a chair in the main room by the fire place. Bonnie stood wary of the new person whilst Damon grabbed a fire poker and a bag of pork grinds, waiting for the guy to wake up.

They had no idea of the chaos that would be caused by bringing him back to the house, to the same place as Jerome Valeska Gilbert.


	7. Meeting the other psycho

Kai groans, lifting his head, awakening from his restless slumber. Cracking his neck he tilts his head and looks up to Damon, stood above him with the fire poker and pork grinds.

"You're awake. Good. Now for the Q and A portion of the evening." Damon says, swinging the poker over his shoulder, glancing back at Bonnie sat on the arm of the sofa.

"Let me guess. I answer right, I get a pork grind. Wrong, I get a poker." Kai asks, tilting his head towards each item in Damon's hands.

"What? No,no,no, these are for me. You just get the poker." Damon answered moving the bag behind his bag and pointing the poker towards Kais chest causing him to shift uncomfortably.

"Yeah, you don't have to do that."

"No?" Damon raising his eyebrows in question.

"We're on the same team."

"Really? Do you always try and kill your teammates?" Bonnie counters, standing up and scoffing.

"The important thing is that you have your magic back. It worked." Kai shrugged like it was no big deal, to him it wasn't. Bonnie and Damon glanced to each other, uneasy.

"What, you--You didn't really think I'd kill Damon, did you? Heh. In what universe does that make sense? I wouldn't kill one third of our population. I'm not a monster. I knew Bonnie would show up. She always comes back, all 13 times. And I knew with the right motivation, she'd be able to access her magic. Although, hah, I did get a little worried with all your bickering that Damon's life wouldn't be enough motivation. But turns out it was. I guess that's how you two just show your love." Kai grinned, finishing his speech, not seeing Damon and Bonnies furrowed eyebrows.

"So you did all that just to make sure I'd have my magic?"

"Of course I did. Because your magic is the key to getting the hell out of here." Kai finished looking smug.

"Wait? One third of the population? I thought you were supposed to be stalking us?" Bonnie asked with a questioning glance towards Damon who looked just as confused.

"What are you talking about?" Kai asked annoyed at the fact they clearly knew something he didn't.

"Oh. He doesn't know." Damon finished with a smirk.

"Know what?!" Just after Kai asked that, a dark chuckle sounded through the house, vibrating of the walls, followed by a shout for Damon. Kai looked alarmed by the fact someone else was here and he didn't realise while Bonnie rolled her eyes, shivering slightly, and Damon groaned.

"DAMON!DAMON! COME ON IM BOREDDDDDD!"

"Who the hell is that?!"

"The other person here. Ugh. Damon maybe we should let him out. We cant keep him down there forever and if we do have a chance at getting out we don't have a choice, we need to get him out too. Just do it for Elena." Bonnie turned towards Damon, blocking out Kai who was making confused faces as he listened to what she was saying?

"He's locked up for a reason, Bonnie! Look at what happened last time!"

"Wait, who is he and why is he locked up?" Kai tilted his head, growing curious, annoyed at the complication in his plan.

"FINE! Fine! I'll get him, but if anything happens I'm blaming you." Damon huffed leaving the room.

"Just-Just try not to stare or god knows what he'll do." Bonnie stuttered, a look of fear taking residence on her face.

"Why?"

"You will see." Bonnie sat down on the edge of the sofa, leg bouncing nervously as foot steps sounded outside the room.

Jerome was lying flat in the middle of the cell floor, laughing manically and calling for Damon. When he finally arrived he looked apprehensive. Jerome shot up faster than a bullet as Damon unlocked the cell and stepped into the small room.

"Ooo you gonna let me out?"

"...yes. There is someone else here, he has a way out of here. I cant leave you here, Elena would never talk to me again. Come on. Here, change, your outfit is scruffy."

Damon handed Jerome a pair of white skinny jeans, a white shirt with buckles on and some doc martins. Obviously, hyper at the prospect of finally getting out, Jerome changed and raced after Damon who was waking up the stairs to the main room. On his way, he trailed back a little, without Damon noticing he swiped a pocket knife from a nearby desk and shoved it into his pocket for later. Grin wide on face, dark eyes almost black. He entered the main room after Damon, spreading his arms, breathing in freedom and snickering.

He always did have a perchance for dramatics and flare and stage presence.

There was a boy, looked to be his age, tied to a chair staring at him wide eyed. He noticed that the stranger was staring at his face so he tilted his head, putting on a confused face.

"Wha-Is there something on my face?" He asked shocked, playing oblivious.

"Sorry. Manners. I'm Kai."

"Jerome. Jerome Valeska. At your service, gorgeous." He mocked bowed as Damon and Bonnies eyes widened at the nickname, having no idea that he was bisexual. Then again, they didn't know much about him other than his hobbies of killing people.

"Sit down and shut up before I shove your crazy ass back into the cell." Damon pushed Jerome towards the sofa but instead of moving, Jerome's entire body froze up.

Slowly, tilting his head, he turned towards Damon. A psychotic grin broke out onto his face as he took a step closer, unnerving everyone in the room, including Kai.

"Crazy? Look at me. You can see I'm not crazy." He laughed, tilting his head forward, before stabbing Damon in the neck with the pocket knife. Damon dropped to the ground, swearing, as he pulled out the knife and healed. Bonnie jolted backwards in shock, gasping, as Kai jumped and then grinned at the new person he just met.

Kai decided he liked him.

"You son of a bitch!" Damon growled standing up. Jerome simply sat on the sofa and leaned back kicking up his feet onto the table in front of him, back to grinning normally.

"True, but not the point." He tilted his head again, a habit he picked in Arkham.

"Damon ju-just leave it ok? We have more important matters at the moment." Bonnie sighed, moving as far away from Jerome as possible. Damon just growled in response.

"Well that was entertaining." Kai laughed as he stared at Jerome.

"Just tell us how to get out of here?! OK?" Bonnie asked frustrated at having two psychos in the same room.


	8. Own personal hell

"...and of course I broke into the Oval Office and took a picture of myself at the window, looking all JFK. But then I was like, wait, how am I gonna get these photos developed?" Kai chuckled.

Jerome was finally not bored. Kai was entertaining, funny, plus he was annoying Damon, a bonus for him. Jerome just snickered as Damon pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing.

"Oh, my God. Just answer the damn question. How are we gonna get out of this Twilight Zone?"

"I got a question for you first." Kai was lounging in the seat, still restrained, but comfy.

"Why do you think we are stuck on a repeating loop of May 10th 1994, doomed to relive a solar eclipse forever and ever and ever?"

"How the hell should I know?" Damon raised his hand in question, taking a gulp of his bourbon.

Jerome chuckled, "You're lying. You know exactly what he is talking about, Damon. Your poker face is terrible."

"Well, I heard you tell Bonnie this place was your own personal hell. I'm kinda curious why?"

"I found everything you asked for." Bonnie walked into the room, hands full, clearly sensing the tense atmosphere.

"Can opener, shower drain, grinding wheel, jam, pocket knife, volume O of the encyclopaedia, a nail and a black marker." She dumped said items onto the table, glancing at Jerome then Kai.

Kai leant forward, clearly pleased with what she brought him.

"Now what?"

"Can't show you with my hands taped." Bonnie and Damon glanced at each other but Jerome beat them to it. He jumped out of the chair, striding to the small table and grabbing the silver pocket knife. He flicked the blade open and grinned seeing his reflection before he cut the tape on Kai's hands, pocketing the knife before Damon could stop him.

"JEROME!"

"Thank you." Kai glanced up at Jerome who smirked and winked before sitting down again.

"Okay, fine." Bonnie sighed, glancing at Damon again.

"How's this pile of crap gonna get us outta here?" Damon asked, pointing to the junk of the table.

"I'll explain as soon as you tell me what you did on May 10th 1994." Kai shifted his body as he spoke.

"What difference does it make?" Damon exclaimed putting his arms out to the side.

"Ooo now I'm curious." Jerome sang leaning forwards, smirking, placing his chin on his knuckles.

"Put it this way: Bonnies magic is one part of the equation. My as-yet undisclosed knowledge is the other. Which means you would be hitching a ride home for free. I just wanna know if you deserve to come along." Kai asked innocently.

"What about ginger over there?"

"Oh. Yeah, he's a lot of fun. Would not want to get bored."

Damon walked forward, snatching the pocket knife from his pocket, which he originally took from Jerome, and grabbing Kai by his t-shirt.

"Or, I could just torture you until you say something useful?"

"Torture?" Jerome's eyes light up with blatant excitement.

"If you torture me, I'll get mad and then I wont want to help you. What kind of person needs to have that explained to them?" Kai asked as if he was talking to a child, then sent a questioning look to Jerome who just laughed, clearly enjoying the show. Bonnie gently took the knife away from Damon and he dropped him to the ground, annoyed, causing Kai to chuckle.

"Play nice." Bonnie hissed at Damon as Kai took a seat next to Jerome.

"Stop trying to impress the new guy."

"Why dont you just tell him your story?"

"Maybe because I don't wanna talk about the worst thing I've ever did, Bonnie." Damon hissed back, turning to see Jerome and Kai sat next to each other.

"Ooh, now I'm listening." Kai said, sticking his hand in the jam and eating it with his fingers.

"Come on D, cant be worse than what I've done, and Elena still loves me. For some reason. Hey, do you guys know why that is? It's really annoying! I kill our parents, I almost kill her, I burn a bus of her cheerleading friends alive. She still loves me. Why is that? Hmm emotions are so weird." Jerome trailed of deep in thought while Damon and Bonnie looked at him horrified as Kai looked at him shocked and impressed.

"Because you're still her brother. No matter what you do." Bonnie whispered but everyone heard her.

Jerome rolled his eyes and turned towards an awed Kai, "You got any siblings? They are soooo whiny and annoying, you know?"

Kai grinned sadistically and began to say something but Damon cut him off.

"OKAY OKAY SHUT UP! I'll tell my story, if only to make Jerome shut up." Damon sighed, giving in.


	9. Wanna hear a joke?

Kai lounged back on the sofa, messing with a can opener, as he waited for Damon to begin his story. It had been 5 minutes and Damon still had not begun even though he accepted to tell his story. Bonnie and Damon stood, side by side, staring at Kai as Jerome hung backwards on the sofa by Kai's feet. Jerome's head, close to the floor, was tilting back and forth back and forth in boredom as his legs propped up over the back of the sofa.

"I need to be entertained while I work. Hell story, please." Kai finally broke the silence, clarifying to the others that he was infact creating something with the junk he had Bonnie collect.

Damon, pinching the bridge of his nose, released a strained breathe before speaking to Bonnie, "Remind me not to kill him. Either of them."

"You wanna hear a joke?" Jerome asked, opening his eyes and watching Kai.

"There was two guys locked in Arkham with me and one night they decided they didn't like being there anymore. They decided to escape. Of course, I couldn't resist, I followed them. Ha-ha. So, they made it to the roof and there, just across a narrow gap, they see rooftops stretching across town, stretching to freedom. Now, the first guy, he jumps right across, no problem. But his friends, no way, he's afraid of falling. Poor thing." Jerome trails off into dark chuckles before continuing, "So, the first guy, he has an idea. He says, 'hey, I got this flashlight with me. I'll shine it across the gap between the buildings and you can walk across the beam and join me.' But the second guy says' what do you think I am, crazy?" Jerome pauses, all eyes on him, "'You'll just turn it off when I'm halfway across.'" Jerome keeps a straight face for a few seconds before he collapses off the sofa onto the floor, cackling. Damon's lip turns up slightly, Bonnie looks away and Kai starts laughing while watching Jerome roll around on the floor.

"Well that was entertaining for sure...but I'm still bored. Hell story time."

"...Maybe you should just tell your story, get it over with." Bonnie suggests looking at Damon, raising her brows.

"Whose side are you on?!" Damon exclaimed, glare returning.

"The side where we get to go home to the people we love."

"Fine." Damon turns, staring down Kai, ignoring a now still Jerome. Taking a deep breathe before beginning.

"In May 1994, I was living here. I'd come home to walk the straight and narrow."

"Sure you did, Damon. Because you're a good vampire who likes bambie blood. Oh wait...that's Stefan. I always get you two mixed up." Jerome interrupts, dragging himself of the floor and back onto the seat.

Damon rolls his eyes, continuing despite the interruption as Kai snorts at Jerome's comment, obviously trying not to laugh. Damon started talking about drinking rat blood and Stefan warning him against Gail and Zack.

Kai pretended to be asleep while Jerome commented, "So you did drink bambie blood! How shocking Damon!"

"Great. Our saviour's insane and narcoleptic." Damon sighed, getting himself some bourbon, again.

"No, no, no. I'm awake. Let me guess, you killed the pregnant woman." Keeping his eyes closed, Kai answered, sounding incredibly bored.

"Ooo I knew you could be fun Damon. Wish I could have met you before you fell in love with my dopplebitch sister. Shame."

"Shut up, Kai. You weren't listening. Don't start Jerome."

"I was listening, in my sleep. You were hanging out with your distant nephew Zack, who you called Uncle Zack, because that's not confusing. Plus, pregnant lady Gail who had a big bulls eye on her chest. Got it." Kai said, sighing and finally opening his eyes, sitting straight again while sparing a glance at an enthusiastic Jerome.

"Tell me you didn't kill a pregnant woman." Bonnie said with dread creeping up her spine.

"That, is totally what happened. Right D? Why else would today be your own personal hell?" Jerome snickered.

Slowly, pacing forward like a tiger it's prey, Damon squatted in front of the table which was in front of Kai and Jerome. Kai gave Jerome a knowing look, who proceeded to smirk back.

"Oh, here we go."

"The only reason you're alive is because I thought you could get up out of here and you could help us but you don't have any answers, You're just a man-child with jam on your fingers!" Damon snapped, barely controlling himself as he threw a glass on the table in front of Kai. Jerome opened his cracked lips, about to make some type of comment before Damon threatened him too.

"Say one more word and you lose a limb. Elena may not let me kill you, doesn't mean I can't hurt you. Got it?!" Jerome just leaned back and grinned at the furious vampire.

"Okay. To get home, we'll harness the power of the eclipse using a mystical relic. It's called an ascendant. And it looks like this, Damon. The last time we had it was in the Pacific Northwest. Oregon." Kai explained as if Damon was a mere toddler as he proceeded to show what he was making, a replica of the ascendant, and opening an old book.

"We?" Bonnie asked, tired and wanting to go home to her family, her friends.

"It belonged to my family. So here's a little blood to get you started. Now all we need is a locator spell to pinpoint its whereabouts." Jerome didn't miss the way Damon's eyes lingered on Kai's now cut finger and he didn't mention the fact Kai was clearly hiding something.

"Think you can find our ticket out of here, Bon Bon?"

"Hell, yeah."

Damon was outside, playing with paper aeroplanes made from the discarded, forgotten newspaper. Kai and Bonnie stood around the long table, candles lit, map spread over the surface. Jerome was wandering the house, finding a fancy, black revolver and putting it into the back of his jeans. When Jerome and Damon eventually made their way

back to the table, Bonnie was trying and failing to get the locater spell to work. Kai cutting his hand, hoping to try and get it to work with more blood, barely flinching.

Damon flinched however, eyeing the fresh blood, fangs lowering and eyes changing. Jerome chose that moment to annoy him, bad move.

"Hey, doll face, why isn't it working. Come on!"

A hungry look in his eyes, Damon sped over to Jerome and bit into his neck, savouring the sweet fresh blood. Bonnie gasped, dropping her hands while Kai eyes widened. Jerome just groaned and let out a strained chuckle before Bonnie threw Damon into the wall away from him with her magic.

"Ow." Jerome muttered, stumbling backwards into a dresser, Kai rushing to him and catching him by the arm before he could fall to the floor.

"DAMON WHAT THE HELL?!" Bonnie raged, walking forwards, "We can't kill him or have you forgotten what Elena was like after Katherine killed him? Huh? She was a mess."

"I told him not to call you that." Damon muttered, standing back up and glaring at Jerome, however making no move to attack again.

"Yeah Damon. You can't kill me. Wouldn't want to ruin your chances with Elena when we get back. So tragic." Jerome laughed, leaning heavily against Kai who was looking at his neck in worry, blood still rushing out at an alarming rate.

"Hey, Bonnie? You know any healing spells? This looks pretty bad." Kai asked just as Jerome collapsed into him, dragging Kai to the floor with him.

"Shit." Damon rushed forward, biting into his wrist and forcing it into Jerome's mouth before Bonnie could try any spell to heal him.

"Just can't let me die can you? That's why I'll outlive you." Jerome croaked, coughing up excess blood, thankfully healing.

"You're a mortal, I'm immortal. Not gonna outlive me buddy. Why have you not done the spell yet?" Damon asked, glancing at the unmoved blood on the map, completely forgetting about the psychopath who was currently laughing and getting up off the ground with Kai's help.

"It's not working Damon, maybe I need a bigger map?" She responded, rolling her eyes and also moving on from what just occurred.

Jerome scoffed, "Just gonna forget that fangs just took a chunk outta my neck? Yeah? You probably just suck at magic now, doll face." He accented 'doll face' just to agitate Damon and laughed, ducking behind a now smirking Kai when Damon growled and took a step forward.

"Ah ah ah. Can't touch me." Jerome laughed, peeking over Kai's shoulder and wriggling his finger in a condesceding way, a trail of blood still running down his fractured face.

"Maybe you're just out of practice." Damon rolled his eyes, glaring at Jerome, grabbing yet another glass of alcohol.

"Ignore them, Bonnie. Pretend their just a white noise machine. That's how I used to tune out my siblings. I grew up with a ton of little sisters and brothers. You know, all of them constantly yammering. But it, uh, taught me how to focus." Kai started making his way closer to Bonnie, sending a sly dark smirk to Jerome as Damon eyed how close Kai was to Bonnie with distaste.

"Easy there, big brother. She doesn't know you, at least buy her a drink."

"Ooo I knew, you knew how pathetic siblings are. We're the same." Jerome laughed, no one but Kai getting the sinister hidden meaning to his words.

Starting to mutter the incantation, Bonnie began the spell. The dark, red blood moved fluidly down the map, a certain destination in mind. Jerome sat on the table watching, only half interested whilst he tried to figure Kai out, he knew he was a psychopath. Kai and Bonnie stood side by side next to the map as Damon walked over.

"The blood is moving towards Virginia. That can't be right." Kai put on a confused facade but Jerome saw right through it, used to an innocent facade.

"Mm-mmm spells working. It's showing me Mystic Falls. Feels so...close..."Bonnie turned towards Kai, pausing and raising her hand up to his chest as the candles all flared to life angrily, dying out simultaneously as her hand pressed against his stern chest.

"It's right here."

"Very good." Kai praised, taking out the ascendant for everyone to see.

"That's the ascendant?" The witch mad at being messed with.

"The one and only."

"Thanks for the mind games, jackass." Damon sneered, crossing his arms over his chest.

"It was just another little test. To make sure Bonnie's magic was precise enough to do the spell. I do believe you're ready. Pack your bags, we're going home."

Damon smirked, raising his eyebrows, excited to be finally going home, back to Elena.

Jerome jumped off the table and skipped to Kai and Bonnie, snatching the ascendant out of Kai's hands and twirling it towards the light. He squinted at it, trying to inspect it.

"Oh shiny!"

"Hey!" Kai managed as it was took from his grasp.

"Jerome, give it back!" Damon began forward but stopped as Jerome fell to the floor, shouting and grabbing his head. Kai and Damon turned to Bonnie who had her hand outstretched towards Jerome, giving him painful, magical migraine. Kai walked in front of Bonnie causing her to lose her concentration and stopping the spell as Damon ripped the ascendant from Jerome's weak grasp.

"Hey Bonster, no need to play rough." Jerome began, kneeling on the floor and snickering with a dark look in his eyes, " I was just having a look."


	10. I knew I liked you!

Kai strolled around in the place next to the woods, lifting the ascendant in the air and squinting through it, confusing Damon, Bonnie and Jerome.

"You're wandering around like a crazy man, why?" Damon quizzed from his place further back with Bonnie, Jerome was behind them even further whilst spinning the pocket knife around his fingers expertly.

"I'm looking for the exact right spot. We need to find where the power of the eclipse is focused.

"You know, you could have just shown us the ascentdant to begin with." Bonnie spoke up, pulling on the staps of her outfit.

"Yeah, but I wanted to feel your hand on my chest." Kai continued to look through the ascendant focused.

"Horny." Jerome laughed loudly, announcing his prescence as he strolled up to Kai's side and tilted his head trying to gaze through the ascendant too, still playing with the knife.

"Something is not right about him." Bonnie muttered quietly but Jerome and Kai still heard her perfectly.

"You're just not used to guys hitting on you." Damon joked.

"What are you talking about? I hit on Bonnie allllll the time." Jerome draled, spinning around and walking backwards whilst facing Bonnie and Damon questionally causing Kai to let out a quiet laugh.

"You don't hit on her, you try to kill her." Damon sighed frustrated once again at the eldest Gilbert.

"There's a difference?" Jerome taunted, stopping walking as he thought about it, ending up behind Bonnie.

"I can't wait to get out of here and talk to somebody else." Bonnie smiled mockingly at them.

"Ruuuude."

"Can we just have a few lasting seconds of peace while this idiot uses that thing to get the stars to align?" Damon spoke, making hand gestures to the sky as Bonnie crouched down and picked up one of the discarded paper planes made out of the forgotten newspaper. The crease between her eyebrows deepening as she furrowed her brows, beginning to read as they all continued forward down the drive.

"Hey! What's up with the nature walk?"

"I used the ascendant to figure out where we need to be standing during the eclipse." Kai stated smugly.

"Great. Let's do some magic and get the hell out of here."

"Finally! Let's blow this popstand." Jerome's malicious eyes lit up and he laughed giddily.

"Oregon." Bonnie uttered, freezing in her spot causing Jerome to run straight into her back and groan at the impact.

"What?"

"I've read this paper a milion times, there's something in it about Oregon." Bonnie stared at Kai's back warily as she showed Damon the newspaper. Jerome, angry at Bonnie havng just stopped suddenly began to pull out his revolver but stopped as he saw something interesting in the paper from over her shoulder.

"What about it? What are you grinning at now?!" Damon glanced at Jerome's elated face before back to Bonnie and the newspaper.

"You know how Kai said he had all those brothers and sisters? Family massacred in Portland. The only one missing was the oldest boy, a 22 year old named Malachai."

"Who names a kid Malachai? It's like they expected me to be evil." Jerome broke into sadistic, manic laughter as he realised what Kai did.

"All these kids were murdered!"

"Hello? Not everyone died. I had a soft spot for one of my sisters, cause otherwise I would have cut her lungs out and not just her spleen." Kai tilted his head at the memory, smiling.

"Oh, I knew I liked you!" Jerome laughed, holding onto Bonnie's shoulder as he bent over and clutched his ribs from laughing too hard.

"What?" Disbelief coating Bonnie's face.

"You can survive without a spleen." Kai looking so proud as he reminiced.

Jerome tilted his head in deep thought, "Huh. I should try that."

Bonnie just gave him a disaproving glare as Damon spoke up.

"Something tells me you're not speaking hypothetically."

Kai sighed at Damon and moved so he was leaning over Bonnnie next to Jerome, "Look, well these two,I, uh, hung off the stairwell railing. Then I put a hunting knife in her abdomen. And him, I drowned in the pool. But he-he kept fighting me. I was like, "I saved you for last you ungrateful little..."He trailed off staring into air, shaking his head slighlty.

"Anyway that was that." Turning back to where he was originally headed he started walking again a Bonnie and Damon shot him disgusted looks. Jerome however, was laughing, the sound raspy, still suffering from the fatal blow to his kneck which killed him the first time.

"You just killed your whole family?!"

"Coven to be precise." He turned back to their frowning faces and elabarated, "Oh, you know, family of witches."

"You're making her jump through hoops when you're a witch?" Damon asked gesturing to Kai angrily.

"Sort of, yeah. No powers, obviously. Oh and of course the Gemini coven did not take it too well when they heard what I did in Portland. That's why they banished me here."

"This place is a prison. They created it for you."

"Yup. This isn't your hell, Damon. It's mine."

"Wow, I did not expect dying to provide me so much fun!" Jerome bounced on the spot as Bonnie turned around and stormed back to the house, Damon and Kai begrudging following her.

"We're not letting Kai out of here, okay? He's just said he's a serial killer!"

"I don't care, I want to get out of here." Damon spread his arms and gestured to the prison they were trapped in as Jerome and Kai slowly waltzed through the front door.

"How can you not care? Maybe, because of all the horrible things you've done? Maybe because killing a bunch of kids is not a big deal to someone who's murdered a pregnant woman. Am I wrong?" Bonnie stepped closer to Damon accusingly.

Damon zoned off, finishing the story of his time in 1994, confirming that he did indeed kill the pregnant woman.

"Ouch. Poor nephew-uncle Zack." Kai said mocking sadness as he placed his hands on his hips.

"That's very confusing ya know? Is he your uncle or your nephew? Oh and yeah, shame about whatever her name was." Jerome stated casually, leaning against the wall.

"Stefan compelled Uncle Zach to forget about the girlfriend and the baby, but he couldnt cover up all those murders. The Founders Council was restarted and Stefan took off. He left Mystic Falls for about 15 years. We both did. And when I saw Uncle Zach again, I couldnt look at him without remembering that I ruined everything. So it was a nice relief when I got to kill him. Okay, can we go back now?" Damon sneered, clearly angry at having to relive that memory.

"And you say I'm bad?" Jerome laughed at Damon.

"Oh come on Bonnie! You want to go back home to your friends, I want to go back and give the rest of the Gemini coven an excruciating death. Win-win."

"Look, I know this guys not a model citizen, ok Bonnie, but I need to get back. Not just for Elena, but for my brother."

Jerome leaned over to Kai and chuckled, "It's totally just for Elena."

"Im sorry, Damon."

"Sorry doesnt work for me." Kai stated reaching for Bonnies arm, Damon pinning him to the wall with vampire speed before he could touch her.

"Hey! We might be having a bit of a disagrement, but dont ever lay a hand on her."

Before Damon could do anything, Jerome coughed getting his and Kai's attention. He stood with one arm around Bonnies neck and the other holding the shiny black revolver he found earlier agasint her head.

"I'd, uh, let him go before I splatter her pretty little head. It would be a shame to get this outfit bloody, I like it." Damon let go of a smirking Kai as he turned his full attention to Bonnie who was griping Jeromes arm trying to pull it off her.

"You see, I want out of here. Im not really gonna take no for an answer. Ya know though Bonnie, you say you wont let Kai out casue he's a serial killer? What am I and Damon? I mean, not to brag too much, but I have also killed most of my family and plenty more, and you're willing to let me out?" Jerome asked confused, still pressing the gun to her temple.

"I-it's dif-different." Bonnie gasped out in fear.

"Now you get us the hell out of here or I'm gonna stop playing nice." Jerome hissed, pushing Bonnie away from him and pocketing the gun, Bonnie tripping into Damons arms.

"That was you playing nice?! Where'd you even get a gun?!" Damon growled as he held Bonnie close. Jerome just tilted his head and smiled in response.

"Kind of a non-issue now anyway. Missed todays eclipse. Rain check for tomorrow?" Kai smiled at Jeromes actions.

"No." Bonnie said firmly walking off.

"She means yes." Jerome narrowed his eyes on Bonnies retreating form.

It was later that night, Bonnie was eating pancakes and Jerome was playing with a knife as they sat at the kitchen table. Bonnie and Damon decided that someone had to watch over Jerome at all times to make sure he didnt do anything bad. It was Damon who broke the silence when he walked in.

"Shame eating?"

"Thinking about that pregnant lady. She had a thing for pancakes."

"That's what you remember?" Damon asked while poruing himself some bourbon.

"That stuff's dangerous ya know?" Jerome laughed, still messing with the knife, carving a wide grin into the wooden table.

"You remember it, don't you? You make pancakes every day." Bonnie asked, ignoring Jerome.

"Every. Single. Day." Jerome accented with a stab for each word, clearly sick of the constant food which was regulary brought to him.

"Because I'm bored."

"No...because you're punishing yourself. You call this place your hell, that means you feel remorse. That's what makes you different to Kai and Jerome. Means there hope for you."

"Excuseeee meee. I'm sitting right here!" Jerome raised his arms in the air annoyed.

"Look, we can still get out of here Bonnie. We can just steal that ascendant contraption, find out what Kai knows. We'll ditch him. If ginger here protests, we'll give him a magic knock out." Damon said as Jerome froze and his grip on the knife tightened until his knuckles turned white, slowly looking up to give Damon a dark look.

"He doesnt have any powers anyway." Damon finished, ignoring the goosebumps he got from Jeromes stare.

"Actually, it's not that simple." Kai said popping up in the doorway, clearly having been earsdropping.

"You gotta stop doing that, it's creepy."

Kai began moving towards Bonnie as he spoke, "Here's the thing, I have a peculiar effect on magic. I can't generate it myself, but I can consume it from others. Temporarily."

Bonnie stood up as he got closer to her as Jerome just leaned back in his seat, putting his feet up on the table, grinning at the show he knew was bound to take place.

"My family called me an abomination. That hurt my feelings." Kai said before quickly grabbing Bonnies arm. A red glow surrounded his hand on Bonnies arm as she started crying out in pain.

Raising his arm, Kai cause the kitchen counter to go up in flames whilst simultaneosly giving Damon an anuerism. Glancing to a giggling Jerome, he left him alone, knowing he would not cause him any problems at the minute.

"Okay! Okay, we get it!" Damon strained to say as he fell holding his head and Bonnie continued to moan in pain.

Stopping the magic and letting go of Bonnie, Kai laughed, "You can see why my coven and I didnt get along."

"I smell an ultimatum."

"If I consume all of Bonnies magic, I'm just gonna end up killing her. But, if we work together, we can all go home as friends. Or I can devour her magic, kill you both and go home alone." He said leaning against the table, jumping when Jerome suddenly stabbed the knife into the table, millimetres away from his hand, giving Kai an expectant look.

"I can go home with him. What's it gonna be?" Kai coughed, getting over his shock, sitting down next to Jerome and eating Bonnies forgotten pancakes with a dark smile on his face.

"I like his plan." Jerome laughed, leaning forward and resting his chin on his knuckles.


	11. Wanna play a game?

The next day the four were sat around the main room waiting for the eclipse, which was another three hours away.

"We're finally going to see Elena and everyone else again!" Damon laughed, sitting on one sofa next to Bonnie, still cautious of the two psychos on the opposite sofa.

"I know. What are you going to say when you see her?" Bonnie asked.

Damon started to reply but was cut of by Jerome who sprang up out of his seat with a huge grin.

"Oh I know! Lets play a game!"

"Like what?!" Bonnie sighed as Kai looked on interested.

Instead of answering straight away, Jerome took out his revolver and removed all bullets but one.

"You know this game right?" He chuckled darkly.

"NO! No way am I playing that. You're crazy Jerome!" Bonnie shouted, sitting up alarmed with Damon as Kai seemed more interested.

Jeromes eye twitched at being called crazy but he shook it off and snorted at Bonnie, "What? Too scared?"

"I just don't exactly want to die!"

"Jerome, we need you alive. Don't." Damon said, eyes widening.

"You guys are so dull. What about you Malachai?"

"Its Kai." Kais eye twitched, like Jeromes just had, at the mention of his full name and Jerome noticed.

"And sure...at least it would cure the boredom."

The dark look returned to Jeromes eyes as he handed Kai the gun, watching as he took a breathe and held it against his temple. He pulled the trigger, flinching at the noise as Bonnie and Damon jumped.

Nothing.

Handing the gun back to Jerome, they all grew uneasy as his eyes filled with excitement and his grin doubled.

Jerome took the gun, shaking it around in his hand giddily before putting it to his temple with zero fear.

"Hey Kai, what's the secret to good comedy?"

He fired, causing everyone but him to flinch as he answered, "Timing."

Slowly, dragging the barrel of the gun down to his cheek he continued causing Bonnie and Damon to shoot up out of their seats.

"And what's courage?" Jerome asked, leaning forward toward Kai who was beginning to look unnerved at his insanity.

"Grace under pressure." Jerome pulled the trigger again.

"And whose the winner?" He asked as he put the barrel under his chin.

"Jerome stop it! We can't heal you from a bullet to the head. You have already won! Just stop!" Bonnie cried, actually worried for his safety.

Bang.

Nothing.

"I won." Jerome laughed at the expressions on their faces.

"Ok OK! Jesus do you have a death wish?!" Damon asked snatching the gun from his hands causing Jerome to shoot his head up to look at him.

"Give that back."

Damon simply backed away,

"I said. Give. That. Back." Jerome growled taking a step forward.

Damon pinned Jerome against the wall by his throat as he used his strength and snapped the gun in two. Jerome lost his smile and it turned into a dangerous scowl but before he could do anything Bonnie separated them.

"That's enough! We can't kill each other if we want to get out of here!"

"You're gonna regret that." Jerome sneered before sitting back down next to a smirking Kai.

Kai did not want to admit that what Jerome did made him uncomfortable, him, a sociopath, he instead decided he would learn more about the psychopath. He was curious as he had watched Bonnie and Damon for months, but he never saw Jerome.

"What is it that you actually did to make them hate you so much? And, um, your face?"

"Oh, you wanna know my origin story?" Jerome grinned, kicking his feet onto the table and turning to look at Kai.

"Well, you see, my parents were drunken whores tha-"

"They were some of the kindest people I've ever met! They were nothing like that!" Bonnie defended angry, cutting off Jerome.

"They were drunken whores. You were always so busy with precious, innocent Elena to notice! My mother was a cold hearted whore who never loved anyone, my father was an alcoholic who didn't give a damn! They had this 'game' where they would screw, get drunk, and beat Jerome. On and on and on! My siblings they never got it though, no no, just little old me. It was always me because I was a disgrace. You see my more...psychotic tendencies started to show and they couldn't have the Founders thinking that the perfect Gilbert name produced a psychopath, a monster." He slammed his palm onto the table causing Bonnie and Damon to jump, Bonnie looking away ashamed she never saw what happened to him.

"On my 17th birthday, Elena went to a party, I was locked in my room. That made me angry. So when mommy and daddy went to pick her up as she was sick of the party, I followed. I just had enough of them. So, I stood in front of their car, watched their terror filled faces as they turned their car to prevent crashing into me, and drove of Wickery Bridge. I sat and watched them drown until lover boy #2 just had to show up and rescue scared little Elena. I got sent to Arkham Asylum after that. I was there for three long, boring years before I broke out. I was pissed so I burned a bus of Elena's cheerleading friends alive and I massacred the police station when they tried to stop me. I could have done so much more but Katherine stabbed a knife into my pretty neck, she wanted to make Elena hurt and apparently I was the way to do that." He touched the scar on his neck as Bonnie and Damon grimaced at the memory and Kai seemed to be sucked into Jeromes story.

"The next few years were a blur. Just darkness." He trailed off and shivered at the memory before smiling and continuing, "Then one of my beloved cult followers, who was crazy about me and happened to be a witch, resurrected me using some pretty dark magic. He thought it didn't work and apparently I had a cult to impress so he stole my FACE! AND WORE IT LIKE A MASK! Sorry sorry. Anyway. I killed him, reclaimed my face, painful experience. I had too staple it back on. Ugh. It was totally badass though! Then created some more fun and chaos, blacked out Mystic Falls went on a rampage, ya know, the usual. Their little gang were to busy with a humanity-less Elena to stop me. Witchy here finally sealed me into the cell in the boarding house, not cool by the way, until Enzo killed me again. Once again, I was killed to get to Elena. I swear, I can't wait to kill her."

He paused at the look on Damon's face as he backtracked, "I mean, give her a friendly brotherly 'hug'. Anyway with the magic used on me the first time, apparently that left a stain on my soul so I went to the other side, the other side collapsed, blah blah blah."

It was silent for a minute before Kai laughed and spoke up, "WOW!"


	12. Feel like making a deal with the devil?

Damon and Bonnie trailed through the woods, trying to find the spot where they could escape as Jerome skipped behind them, dragging his hand over trees.

"You're in a good mood for the first time this decade. Stop that!" She hissed as Damon whistled and continued to poke her arm with a stick.

"I have a hot date with my girl tonight."

"Gag." Jerome faked coughing.

"Yeah, assuming Kais's telling the truth."

"I'm thinking dinner and a movie. You know what? Screw dinner and the movie, skip straight to the good part."

"I might shoot myself. This is torture, and not the good kind." Jerome laughed and cringed at the same time.

"Yeah, and assuming I can do the spell, which I won't know until I see it."

"What happened to hope, Bon? Remember when I was like all, boo grr, and you were all 'Hooray, hooray" We're getting out of here.'"

"That is a terrible immitation Day-Day." Jerome laughed as he continued to trail behind.

"Look, I wanna go home, more than anything but Kai's a sociopath. Who's to say he won't screw us over?"

"Me. I say. Because I will kill Kai and anyone who comes in the way of me going home." Damon finished, stabbing the air, using the stick as a makeshift sword.

"I heard my name. All good, I hope. The eclipse will happen directly overhead, in perfect allignment with the Gemini constellation. You need to dig into the tunnels below us, we'll do the spell there." Kai said pointing at Damon and throwing him a pick axe.

"Why?"

"Have you never portal-jumped through an eclipse before?" Kai asked with a faux shocked expression. Okay, look, the light of the eclipse will shine down and activate the ascendant. You spout a little witchy woo and then, poof, anyone standing in the circle of light holding the ascendant gets to go home."

"By 'witchy woo' I assume you mean the spell. Let me see it."

"When the time comes." Kai smiled innocently before beginning to walk off into the woods.

"Where are you going?" Damon questioned.

"Into town. I need to gather some important supplies. Actually, why don't you come Jerome? Being alone is boring."

Jerome started to enthusiastically walk to Kai but Damon stopped him by grabbing his shoulder.

"Nope. Jerome stays here, can't have him wandering off." He quipped casuing Jerome to growl slighlty.

"Um I'm the only one who knoews the spell and I want Jerome to come, so either let him go or we don't go anywhere." Kai stated liked Damon was stupid.

Shrugging Damons hand off him, Jerome laughed and walked off with Kai.

"See ya later, fangs."

As they walked into town Kai whistled cheerily causing Jerome to huff.

"I used to be a great whistler." He laughed gesturing to his scarred mouth in a permanant smile.

"It looks badass so it's fine." Kai responded grinning as he walked backwards to talk to Jerome.

"I know." Jerome grinned.

"You know, they are most likely gonna kill ya when we get back?"

"It won't work if they do. I'll let you in on a little secret, I can't die here. Not permanently. I always come back."

"Feel like making a deal with the devil?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"You want to turn your coven into kebabs, I want to turn my sister into a pile of ashes. We work together. I won't let them leave without you, back in the real world we help each other achieve our goals?" Jerome laughed, continuing to walk further into town.

"You got yourself a deal ginger."

"Hey! You know, there is a very probable chance you're digging your own grave and...not bothered?" Bonnie asked from her spot sitting down watching Damon dig into the earth.

"Huh." Damon muttered as he broke through to the tunnels underneath, proud of his acomplishment.

"Looks like we got back just in time." Kai spoke as he and Jerome walked up to the pair.

Speeding out of the hole and to Kai, he snatched the backpack and looked inside.

"Zima, grunge, every Alex Rodriguez rookie card known to man and a pager? Really?"

"5-5-5-Hiya Kai. No way am I giving those digits up."

"These are the important supplies you had to get?"

"Look, the future sounds great. All right? I'm super excited about the Internet Jerome was telling me about. But, 1994 has been my home for most of my life, I'd hate to get homesick. So, let's get down there-"

"No." Bonnie cut him off, standing up, "We are not going anywhere until you show me the spell."

"Okay." Kai said smiling at them, putting his hands in his pockets and waiting. Jerome just leaned against a tree, predicting that Kai did not actually know the spell.

"Are we literally not going anywhere?" Damon asked after a moment of silence.

"Fine. You don't wanna show me the spell, then you can do it yourself. You want my magic. Take it." She said sternly placing her arm out to Kai.

"Uh-oh. Bon-Bon is being brave." Jerome snickered.

"I'm serious, Kai. This was your big threat wasn't it? If I don't do the spell and let us out of here you'll just take my magic, leave me for dead and do the spell yourself. So go ahead. Take all of it." She spoke whilst narrowing her eyes at him.

"If you don't do the spell, it's not him you need to worry about." Jerome spoke grinning maliciously.

"Don't mind if I do." Kai sighed before grabbing Bonnie's shoulders and siphoning her magic. She gasped violently before stumbling into Kai's chest as he drained her.

"Bonnie." Damon muttered warningly as he looked on worried.

"It's okay. He won't kill me." She groaned.

"You so sure about that, dolllface?"

"Hey Bonnie! Woah, hey, guys, stop!" Damon shouted.

Letting go of her shoulders, Kai smirked as he felt her magic strumming through his veins.

Stumbling back, breathing hard, Bonnie stared at Kai. "He doesnt know the spell. Which means we don't need him."

"Motus." She rasied her arm, the pick axe flying into Kai's chest and he grunted then collapsed dead, for now.

"No! No! Bonnie!" Damon shouted glaring at Bonnie who looked proud.

Knowing he had to put on a show, Jerome kneeled by the body before glaring at Bonnie with a murderous look, "You killed the only fun person in here! Idiot."

"Great work, Bonnie." Damon muttered sarcastically as he patted her shoulder and turned away frustrated.

Realising that removing the pick axe from his chest would probably speed up the recovery process, Jerome yanked it out and threw it into a tree, showing his rage over Bonnie 'killing' Kai.

"Mm mm mmm" Damon moaned at the taste of Kai's Zima with fake enthusiasm as Bonnie sat going through her Grimoire trying to find the spell to get out. Kai's still dead body lay by Damon's feet and Jerome was counting the seconds till he woke up and saved him from this boringness.

"Can you stop? Let me concentrate."

"On the bright side, this stuff's not so bad. It's fruity and fizzy."

Snatching the nearly empty bottle of Damon, Jerome downed the rest of it before throwing it at a tree causing glass shards to rain down. Bonnie and Damon flinching.

"I'm bored Bonnie. Better do something before I start getting murdery."

"I'm working on something."

"On the not so bright side, is your intelligence because you took the only chance of us getting out of here, and you turned him into a giant douche kebab." He gestured to Kai's body.

"Think about it Damon, what prison gives an inmate a key?"

"Is that a trick question? Or is that stuff finally starting to kick in?" Damon tilted his head confused.

"I think the Gemini coven used a Bennett spell to create this place. What if that's why my Grams sent me here?"

"And this, is the face I make when I don't understand you." Damon announced as he crossed his eyes and pouted causing Jerome to laugh, although Damon wasn't pleased that he made Jerome laugh.

"You know, the last thing Grams said to me was to stay strong. What if that was her way of telling me I had the power to get out? I have the ascendant, a massive celestial event to draw from. Plus, a burning desire to get away from you guys."

Damon and Bonnie stared at each other, smiling, causing Jerome to gag.

"I thought you were with my sister? What's with the sickly, lovey-dopey stares?"

Bonnie blushed and looked down at the ascendant, breaking the stare, and muttering a spell as Damon glared at Jerome. The ascendant began to open up as she said the spell.

"That's why Kai wouldn't kill me. He needed a Bennett. I was his only way out of here." She smiled, backing up and moving towards the gaping hole in the ground.

"Woah. Wait, where are you going?" Damon asked spreading out his arms in question.

"Home. You coming?"

With that one word from Bonnie, 'home', Jerome glanced at Kai's body smirking before he jumped into the hole, landing on his feet. Damon picked up Bonnie and jumped in after him.

He was finally getting the hell out of there, and he couldn't wait.


	13. Miss Cuddles

"Ah." Slicing her hand on the ascendant, Bonnie let her blood drip down onto it as Damon and Jerome watched hopefully. Jerome had his pocket knife in hand, hidden from Bonnie and Damon as he waited for the right moment. Bonnie stood in the cirlce of light, clearly speaking the spell as she watched the ascendant open wider and the gears in it start to turn. She raised her eyebrows at Damon, both looking hopeful as Jerome rolled his eyes at them.

"It's time."

"Alright." Damon said, rubbing his hands together excitedly.

"Lets's get awkward." He laughed as he grabbed Jerome's arm, pulling him into the light with a tight grip.

"Like this?" He asked as he grabbed Bonnie's hand that held the ascendant, Jerome doing the same, knife opening in his other hand.

"Yeah."

"I'm sure there are about a billion other people you'd rather be here with." Damon smiled heartwarmingly at Bonnie and Jerome had to stop himself being sick at the sight.

"Ugh we aren't doing this again are we?!"

"Not exactly." Bonnie spoke, smiling, ignoring Jerome.

Now was the time for Jerome to act.

"Let's go-ah" Bonnie fell back, crying out in pain, dropping the ascendant as Jerome stabbed her in the stomach with his knife, chuckling as he brutally turned it deeper.

Damon went to grab Jerome, but instead an arrow flew into his shoulder, staggering him.

"Forgetting someone?" A voice, unmistakable called out, Jerome laughing manically throwing his head back.

"Do you really think I hadn't tried to kill myself before? Because I had. Lots of times. Lots of ways." Kai smiled, reloading his crossbow. Jerome moved over to Bonnie as his eyes glinted in joy.

Looking over to the ascendant, Damon considered his options before Kai cut him off, "Grab that and Jerome stabs her neck next. Your choice."

Speeding over to Bonnie, he shoved Jerome out of the way as he cradled her in his arms, trying to heal her.

"Okay. I got you. I got you." Damon reassured as Bonnie's eyes went wide as she saw Kai make his way to the ascendant.

"Damon, no!"

Sending Kai into the wall, Damon pinned him as Jerome stood up brushing off dirt from his white outfit.

"Some people have no manners." He grabbed his knife of the ground and stabbed Bonnie in the upper arm, grinning as she screamed catching Damons attention.

"BONNIE!" Damon went to run for Bonnie, but Kai stabbed him with an arrow before he could.

"That, was for breaking my gun. I told you I would make you regret it." Jerome sneered.

As Kai wrestled with Damon, trying to impale his heart with the arrow, Jerome became distracted by Damons pain filled grunts. Using the distraction, Bonnie grabbed the knife out of her arm, crying out as she did, and plunging it into Jerome's shoulder causing him to fall onto his back. Jerome laughed at the pain.

"Bonnie, get out of here!"

"I'm not gonna make it." Bonnie uttered weakly as she grabbed the ascendant.

"But you are. Motus!" She raised her arm causing Kai to get thrown backwards as Damon was dragged to the cirlce of light.

"Don't!" Kai shouted as Jerome rolled onto his side so he could see what was happening, ignoring the throbbing in his shoulder.

"No. NO!" Damon shouted as Bonnie threw the ascendant into his hands and he was sucked into the white light, disappearing from the prison world. As he vanished, the ascendant fell and smashed into a million pieces. Kai screaming at Bonnie for what just happened. He was still trapped. Letting a few tears drop, Bonnie collapsed, the pain in her stomach too much.

"What did you do?!" Jerome screamed, his voice hoarse from blood loss.

Finally calming down, Kai walked over to Jerome and Bonnie, kneeling down to assess their injuries.

"It looks like she hit an artery. At this pace, you'll bleed out before we get back to the boarding house." Kai sighed as he pressed onto Jerome's wound, hands coating in his blood.

"Funny. I didn't think I'd be dying again this soon. Death must really have the hots for me." Jerome laughed as he coughed up some blood. Kai couldn't tell if he was being delirious or just his usual insane self. It didn't matter though because Kai felt an obligation to help him, he guessed Jerome was now his partner in crime as they had made a deal to help each other.

"Hang on." Kai grabbed Bonnie's wrist in a bruising grip and siphoned her magic, using it to heal Jerome. He only stabilised Bonnie however, he wanted her to hurt.

"Much better." Jerome laughed as he sat up and glared at the unconcious Bonnie.

"Oh goodie! Look who's awake!" Jerome laughed from his spot crouched over Bonnie, who was slowly regaining consciousness, grabbing her hurting stomach.

"How do you feel?" Kai asked, still trying to fix the shattered ascendant.

"Like I got stabbed." She hissed at Jerome, who was grinning at her attempts to sit up.

"Right. Anyhoo. I have no idea how you managed to the ascendant into a billion pieces but we need to put it back together before the eclipse at 12:28. You wanna help?"

"You always were a puzzle person Bon-Bon." Jerome commented as he made his way over to the two decorative swords on the walls, wondering why the Salvatores had them.

"I don't wanna help. You are both psychopaths. This place is your prison, I'm not letting you out. Besides, you'll just kill me the second we get out."

"True." Jerome snickered as he plucked a sword from the wall and started swinging it around.

"Not helping." Kai glared towards Jerome before continuing as he walked towards Bonnie, "You've been through a trauma. Your memory is probably a little fuzzy right now, so you might be thinking that your magic will protect you, but all I need to do is hold your hand and your magic suddenly becomes mine."

Grabbing her hand he siphoned her magic causing Bonnie to groan in pain, trying to yank her arm out of his punishing grip.

"Huh? What's that? You're gonna do the spell to finally get us home?" Before he could take anymore of her magic, Bonnie grabbed a letter opener of the table and stabbed it into Kai's neck, temporarily killing him. Hearing Jerome laugh she spun round and pointed the weapon at him.

"Chill out pretty. I'm not gonna hurt ya." Jerome walked up to her, stealthily stealing a small bit of the ascendant before he turned around and continued swinging his sword around in the air.

Before he could change his mind, Bonnie rushed all the pieces of the ascendant into her rucksack before sprinting out the front door, not knowing that she didn't actually have all the pieces.

Once she was gone, Jerome walked over to Kai and flopped onto the sofa by his body, kicking his feet up and waiting.

Jerome sat for an hour, growing agitated at how long Kai was taking to wake up. He was about to go after Bonnie himself when Kai jolted up gasping. Looking around frantically, Kai noticed the absence of the ascendant pieces and Bonnie before seeing Jerome lazily sat watching him.

"Where is she?!" Kai yelled, using Bonnie's stolen magic to make Jerome choke.

Lifting his hand and raising his sword to Kai's neck, he chocked out, "You really have such little faith in me?"

Letting the magic drop, Kai raised his hands in surrender.

"I let witchy go. She won't get far with her wounds and she can put the ascendant back together for us. The chase is just a bonus, so much funnn." Jerome hissed as he stood up and dropped the sword, making his way out the boarding house.

"If she puts it back together, she'll leave us stranded here!" Kai stumbled, holding his still healing neck.

"Don't doubt me." Jerome laughed holding up the small piece of ascendant he had stolen before he skipped out the house.

Grabbing a plaster from his bag, Kai placed it on his wound before grabbing a knife and racing after Jerome.

"Where are you going?"

"She's wounded. She needs medical supplies. She'll go to the hosptial. Duh." Jerome draled, rolling his eyes.

"No. No no no. Where's the last piece?! Where is it? This isn't happening!" Jerome could hear Bonnie frantically muttering as he waited for Kai to kill the power to the hospital, making all the lights turn off.

"Looking for this?" He snickered, holding up the last piece as Bonnie cautiously turned a corner.

"You stole the ascendant, naughty girl. You weren't planning on using it and leaving us behind, were you? You left a trail of blood in the driveway. Figured where else would you stop and play nurse?" Kai asked from behind Bonnie making her whip round and shout a spell causing everything to go flying and giving her a chance to run from them.

Knowing which doors he had locked, Jerome calmly made his way to Damon's car with Kai behind him as Bonnie stumbled around the hosptial looking for an exit. When she finally got to Damon's car she frantically turned the keys, the engine making a pitiful sound and doing nothing.

"I thought about taking the keys, but it would be like taking the cheese out of the mouse trap. Right Jerome? Although you know, fun fact, mice don't actually like cheese. Isn't that great?" Kai shushed Bonnie as he grabbed her throat from his spot behind her seat.

"So we have, uh, an hour before the eclise? It's time to go home, Bonnie." Jerome tilted his head forwards laughing as he jumped into the passenger seat next to Bonnie.

"I brought you a present. Ta-da. Miss Cuddles. I thought you might wanna bring her along." Kai presented Bonnie's bear as they waited in the underground tunnel for the eclipse.

"Aw Bonnie. So cute." Jerome grinned, leaning against the wall as Bonnie looked solemnly at the arrow on the ground from where Kai stabbed Damon.

"Thanks."

"I know you think I'm a monster. I mean I did murder or heavily main most of my immediate famiy. But, after a long period of self-reflection, I've come to the conclusion that I could've handled my anger better." Jerome snorted, desperately trying not to laugh as Kai played Bonnie.

"You said you wanted to get out of here and I quote, 'to give the rest of the Gemini coven an excruciating death'."

"Ah I didn't mean that. Honestly, I would do anything to get my family back. The thing I'm most scared of is trying to figure out how to live in the world again. I'm sort of hoping you've been a positive influence on me. You're a good person, Bonnie. You're brave, loyal, patient. I wanna be more like you." Kai waved his hand dismissing it and he hid his smirk.

"What do you say? Friends?" Kai asked in a high pitched voice as he made the bear blow a kiss to Bonnie.

When Bonnie turned to Jerome and raised an eyebrow, clearly expecting the same type of speech, he lost it and started chocking on his laughter whilst hitting his knee.

"I-ha-I you really believe that? Oh don't look at me like that. I'm not renouncing my psychotic ways. I like me."

"Let's just go home." Bonnie sighed, turning to the circe of light as Kai glared at Jerome.

Stepping up to the light, the three formed a cirlce as Kai handed Bonnie the ascendant smiling at finally escaping.

"It's now or never."

"Yup." Jerome sighed happily as Bonnie sliced her palm open on the ascendant, letting her blood drip onto it as she started chanting.

"Just in case you thought you'd try and go without us." Kai winked at Bonnie as he grabbed her wrist and Jerome clasped his hand onto her shoulder making her wince.

Bonnie, unbeknownst to Jerome and Kai, let her blood drip onto Miss Cuddles as she started to chant the spell.

"So long, 1994."

The ascensant clicked open but they remained in place making Jerome tighten his grip on Bonnie, "What's happening doll face?!"

"I-I don't know."

"Keep going. Hurry!"

"I can't!"

"Keep going!" Jerome hissed as he squeezed the wound on her arm causing her to cry out.

"I can't! I've lost my magic!"

"What are you talking about?! You were just doing the spell!" Kai yelled as he grabbed both of her wrists as he tried to siphon her magic.

"There's nothing there. There's no magic."

"That's so strange. I wonder if I accidentally put it somewhere. Oh, I remember now. I put it somewhere safe."

"Where. Did. You. Put. Your. Magic?" Kai breathed out heathily as Jerome stepped back, a dark look in his green eyes.

"Do you remember saying you wanted to be more like me? Brave, loyal, patient."

"You put it into the bear. Didn't you?" Kai smirked stepping forward and emptying the contents of the bag onto the ground.

"Come on!" Kai screamed as he threw the bag at the wall, realising that the bear was gone.

Stepping up to Bonnie, he looked down on her, trying to quell the rage burning deep within him as Jerome fumed silently.

"Where's the stupid bear? Hmm?"

"Oh, it's gone. I guess we're stuck here. Forever. Sorry." She smiled sarcastically.

A dark, sinister chuckle sounded through the tunnel before Jerome spun around with his arm raised, a knife aiming for Bonnie's heart. Kai's hand shot out grabbing Jerome's wrist, knife stopping seconds away from plunging into Bonnie's chest. She jumped backwards as Jerome sent a murderous look Kai's way.

"We still need her."

"What about just a flesh wound?" Jerome sneered, yanking his hand away from Kai.

Kai just sent Jerome a look before he darted forwards and stuck on needle into Bonnie's neck, the contents flooding her bloodstream causing her to collapse onto the floor.

Picking her up he left the tunnel and started towards the car, Jerome huffing and following behind.

'Kai better have a plan.' Jerome thought as he trailed after him, angry at being stopped from killing Bonnie.


	14. Let’s blow this popstand!

Kai was sat, piloting a plane, Jerome sat behind him trying and failing to whistle. Bonnie was slumped against a wall of the cockpit, unconscious still.

"Ugh how much longer?"

"Not long. Not gonna appreciate my flying skills? I taught myself you know?"

"Where we goin again?"

"Portland, Oregon. Back to my family home. My annoying twin sister hid her magic in a knife, it should still be there. We get that, steal some of Bon-Bon's blood, go home. Easy." Kai responded without looking away from what he was doing.

"Yeah, sure. I'm gonna grab some things before we leave, necessities. Ya know, clothes, guns, knives. There any towns near your house?" Jerome asked whilst tapping multiple buttons on the console, causing Kai to smack his hands away.

"Unless you want us to crash, I suggest you stop touching things. And yeah, I guess, couple miles away. We'll be landing any moment now." Kai smiled, looking at the approaching landing strip.

Once they were on the ground, Kai lugged Bonnie over his shoulder and made his way to a row of cars, Jerome skipping behind him. Kai hotwired a black car, roughly placing Bonnie in the boot, before turning to Jerome who was staring at a black motorbike. Jumping on, Jerome giggled before starting the engine and turning to Kai.

"I'll meet you at your family home when I'm done. See ya!" Before Kai could say anything, Jerome has sped off, finding his way into town.

"Bye." Kai muttered before getting into the car and driving to his childhood home.

"Wakey wakey. Come here." Kai laughed, pulling a now awake Bonnie out of the trunk.

"How did I-"

"Get so lucky to arrive here in a private flight piloted by yours truly? Oh you would have been super impressed by my flying skills but I already knocked you out." Kai stated as he threw the bag onto the ground in front of Bonnie, whose hands were tied.

"Where are we?" Bonnie asked dazed.

"Portland, Oregon. Stomping grounds of Courtney Love, Tonya Harding and tons of other awesome people." Kai shrugged, opening a pocket knife.

"You could've brought me anywhere in the world, and you took me to Portland?" Bonnie asked, empathising Portland.

"This is where I grew up." Kai stated as he cut the ropes tying Bonnie's hands together.

"Ow!" Bonnie hissed as he nicked her with the knife.

"I've been counting eclipses since I was imprisoned on this empty planet. According to my running tally, I've been here for 6771 supernaturally repeating days. So, in the real world, which we'll never get back to because you sent your magic away in a teddy bear, today is my favourite day of the year." Kai sighed dramatically.

"And what day is that?"

"Thanksgiving. I'm cooking you dinner." Kai slammed the trunk shut, pointing the knife at Bonnie, biting his lip smiling before turning and walking to the massive house.

Bonnie looked around at her surrounding before her eyebrows came together, confused.

"Wait. Where's Jerome?!"

Turning around, continuing walking, Kai answered "He wanted to go shopping. Don't worry, he'll be back soon."

"Great." Bonnie sighed sarcastically before following Kai, rubbing her sore wrists.

"Oh, memories." Kai sighed as he walked up to his house, putting away his knife.

Toys littered the massive white houses porch, pink child bikes and a small blue toy trolley. Clearly home to multiple young children. Kai skipped up the stairs, kicking a toy truck out of his way.

"Pitter patter of little siblings feet. Witchy woo chanting in the air. Mom and Dad calling me an abomination."

"Why did you want to come back here?"

"Because I can finally show it to someone. My coven goes out of their way to make sure no one finds us but since they aren't here to be paranoid freak shows, mi casa es su casa. Come on." Kai grinned gesturing to the house before turning and walking through the front door.

Meanwhile, Jerome had found the town and was collecting supplies for when they got back. He laughed as he stuffed a shotgun into a black backpack alongside two revolvers and a multitude of knives. Smashing a store window, he jumped in and looked through the old fashion clothing. He figured he would look more dramatic if he wore clothing that would stand out. Entering the shop, he danced through the rows as a Madonna song played through the intercom. After a good ten minutes of looking, he grew bored and started to leave the shop when something caught his eye making him stop and turn around. Jumping up onto a stand where clothing was being modelled by plastic mannequins, he eyed a unique suit. The pants were grey checkered, the waist coat a matching pattern, the shirt a bright yellow with a tie that completed the strange look. He grabbed that and a nearby grey trench coat before stuffing it into the backpack with a pair of white gloves he found lying around. The suit was strange, stood out, but that's exactly what he wanted. He wanted to stand out, grab everyone's attention, let them all know Jerome Valeska was back in town.

Blood coated the walls as Kai walked past, wine bottle in hand, heading to the kitchen where Bonnie sat nervously.

"It smells great. Not exactly a turkey dinner, but it's what my family had in the fridge on May 10th, 1994." Kai began as he finished to preparing their food.

"Don't touch that." He commented as Bonnie picked up his pager and started inspecting it.

Bonnie laughed before asking, "Your pager? Why?"

"Because it's brand new, looks cool, and I don't want you to bust it." Kai winked at her before taking it off her and clipping it onto his jeans.

"Listen Kai, my magic's gone which means we will be stuck here forever. Why don't we just divide the world in half and go our separate ways?"

"I get it. I knocked you out, kidnapped you against your will. Can't you see I'm trying to apologise?"

"I will never trust you, or like you or enjoy your company for so much as one second, so just quit trying. Just let me leave here, unharmed."

"Fine. Can we at least have one last dinner conversation before you leave me alone with Jerome?" Kai accepted as he started to plate the food.

"So you agree? One last dinner, and then we peacefully go our separate ways?"

"In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I'll even let you take my car."

"How can I help?" Bonnie asked enthusiastically whilst grabbing the wine bottle with a smile on her face.

"Mmm mm mmm." Kai moaned as he savoured the taste of the food he made.

"Really? You've been eating that same piece for 45 minutes."

"Is it a crime to want to savour out last meal together?" Kai asked confused.

"I had Thanksgiving dinner with you. Now, you keep up your end of the deal and give me your car keys." Bonnie stuck her hand out, wanting to get out of there.

"I should probably teach you how the clutch works, it's finicky."

"Quit stalling and give me your keys."

"Fine, I'm stalling. But, don't you wanna hear how my story ends?" He asked, downing the rest of his wine.

"I've read the newspaper, you murdered your siblings and your coven sent you to live in this prison world."

"My family," Kai stressed, "sent me to this prison world. My father...the great coven leader, treated me like crap for 22 years and then locked me here. It's like his kids didn't even matter. Coven always came first, no matter what."

"Parents suck, am I right?" Jerome asked from his spot leaning on the doorframe. Bonnie jumped at the sudden appearance as Kai smirked at him.

"So, Jo agreed to the merge?" Bonnie asked, they were outside walking towards the old tree stump as Kai finished telling his story.

"Didn't see that coming." Jerome snickered, backpack over his shoulder, the weight pulling on his strained muscles.

"Well, we needed a celestial event. So, the plan was to use the power of the eclipse happening the next day. She even gathered our coven to help. They tricked me good." Kai said as he told of how his coven trapped him.

"Ouch." Jerome cringed as he leaned against the tree stump.

"Instead of using the power of the eclipse for the merge, my dad used it to send me here. And where did Jo's magic go? It made zero sense. Magic doesn't just, like, disappear. But then, you made yours disappear when you hid it in Miss Cuddles and it hit me. My sneaky little twin sister hid her magic..." Kai trailed off, digging around in the leaves in the tree stump, pulling out a sharp hunting knife, blowing the dirt of it.

"In this."

"Hmm. Still there." Bonnie noted nervously.

"Still here, and still full of magic." He started to move closer to Bonnie who shuffled away from him slowly.

"Well it was. I just sucked it out." Kai said as he siphoned the power, levitating the knife in the air.

"You have magic again. Good for you."

"I also have the ascendant."

"It doesn't matter because you need a Bennett witch to do the spell."

"About that, I've watched you do the spell twice now. I don't think I need a Bennett witch to do the spell. I think all I actually need is Bennett blood." Kai twisted the knife smirking.

Bonnie stepped back, trying to get away, but Jerome grabbed her arms from behind, pinning her to his chest and stopping her from moving. Darting forward, Kai stabbed the knife into her stomach, over the old wound, causing her to groan and fall limp into Jerome's arms. Letting go of her, he watched as she fell to ground and chuckled. Kai bending down and grabbing a syringe out of his pocket, collecting her blood before standing and smirking at Jerome.

They were finally getting out of there.

Kai and Jerome were sat in the backseat of a cab, Kai having had to put a cloaking spell over Jerome as his scars and red hair made him extremely recognisable.

"You ever worn skinny jeans? Ah it seems wrong. I'm all bunched up. Also, why are jeans so tight when phones are so big?" Kai asked, shifting uncomfortably in his seat as he glanced down at the offending item.

"I don't know what to tell you, pal." The driver sighed annoyed, Jerome having to stop himself laughing as Kai only had enough stolen power left to cloak him, the driver could still hear him if he made a noise.

"Oh, god. I'm that guy, right? That guy that won't shut up. Ugh, I hate that guy. I just sat next to that guy on the plane. He was the worst." Kai complained about Jerome, causing him to glare at Kai and stomp on his foot as hard as he could, Kai letting out a quiet groan of pain.

"Hey, speaking of planes, have you flown recently? What's with the whole liquid situation? And the stripping before you go through security thing? It's weird." Kai wondered as he leant forward and rested against the driver seat.

"They're worried about terrorists."

"Okay, well, I'm sorry but the real terrorists are some of them people taking of their shoes. I know, I'm chatty. Sorry. I've just been in prison for a while. Well, not like a regular prison, more like a-"

"All right, we're here." The driver huffed, pulling into a parking space.

"Special kind of-" Kai mumbled.

"That'll be 30." Jerome snickered at the drivers annoyance.

"What was that?!" The driver turned around alarmed at the sound, the laugh somehow familiar, Jerome was famous in and around Mystic Falls.

"What was what?" Kai asked as he shot Jerome a look, returning to digging through his jeans pocket.

"Here take this," He handed the driver a ten dollar bill," Hang on. I got it, I got it. Oh hey gum! Nice." Kai popped the gum into his mouth, throwing the wrapper out the window.

"Come on, buddy, I don't have all day. Let's go."

"I got it. Hold on."

Growing angry at the drivers tone, Jerome spotted a pair of discarded headphones on the floor and picked them up. Kai seeing what he was doing, dropped the cloaking spell and sighed.

"That'll do."

"Wha- Oh my god!" The driver exclaimed seeing Jerome's smirking, scared face in the mirror.

"You were dead!" Before he could say anything else or shout for help, Jerome rushed forward and wrapped the cord around his neck, suffocating him.

Lifting the collar of his trench coat and ducking his head down, Jerome stepped out of the car as Kai placed the headphones in the dead guys ears, making it look like he was just asleep, before following after Jerome. Jerome had changed into the suit he took so he hurried to the building before he was noticed, he didn't want to be noticed before his big reveal.

"Thank you!" Kai hit the top of the taxi in thanks before following after him, running to catch up, prompting a laugh from Jerome.


	15. Hello, little sister

Making their way to the Whitmore bar, Jerome stopped as he saw how busy it was, that could be a problem.

"This is Whitmore, not Mystic Falls, surely not everyone will recognise you." Kai sighed as he also stopped and turned to face an annoyed Jerome.

"I may have, uh, broadcasted myself massacring the police station and it played all around the country and ,uh, this kinda raises suspicion." He rolled his eyes sniggering as he gestured to his face.

"I'm gonna see what my dear, little sister is up too. I'll find you later. Try not to get yourself killed." Kai nodded and made his way into the bar and Jerome walked off in the opposite direction.

After a while of searching, Jerome found the ascendant in the cemetery on top of his parents grave stone, curious he climbed a tree and perched in it, positive someone would come for it. Where they trying to get Bonnie back? He was sure Bonnie would be dead by now anyway, the amount of wounds she had, he highly doubted she survived. He searched in his backpack before pulling out a sleek gun which he had filled with vervain covered bullets and sat back, waiting for Damon and Elena to show up. He knew that Damon would be with Elena as after having to listen to Damon fantasise about seeing her again, it was obvious he wouldn't leave her side again.

Slowly falling asleep from boredom, Jerome jolted up as a bright white light made him cover his eyes. When he pulled his hand away, he grinned, Damon and Elena now stood where the light was. He concluded they must have been in the prison world trying to get Bonnie back. He held back a cruel laugh, knowing the vampires would hear him. They were currently too distracted to hear his heart beat but he knew that if he laughed it would give away his position in seconds.

"No, no, no! We shouldn't be back yet, Damon. We have another hour. What did you do?!" Elena hissed at Liv who had showed up with Tyler, ascendant in hand. He must have actually fallen asleep as he never heard them show up.

"Kai is here. We have to get back to Mystic Falls before he takes anymore of her magic." Tyler announced to Jerome's pleasure as he started to more Liv back across the anti magic border.

"No. Send me back first." Elena asked desperately, grabbing the dropped ascendant.

"I can't." Liv sounded so hopeless, sad to not be able to help, but knowing she had to protect herself.

"Bonnie was on her way. Send me back!" Elena yelled angrily whilst approaching Liv, Jerome smirked as he realised she was about to cross the border.

"Ahh!" She cried as her skin started burning, having crossed the border in her rage.

"Elena, you're over the border." Damon warned, worry flooding his eyes.

Jerome's eyes glinted in joy at her pain, but he kept silent.

"I'm sorry, Elena." Tyler apologised, earning a glare from Damon, before pulling Liv away into Mystic Falls.

"No." Elena breathed heavily.

Watching as they sat against the Gilbert grave stone, he smirked at the memories that the gravestone brought to him.

"Bonnie's gonna get to the house and we will be gone." Elena sighed, on the verge on tears.

"Until the next comet, or full moon, or eclipse. As long as we have that we can go back as many times as we need until we get her back." Damon assured a torn Elena.

"Ya know...I could have sworn we killed Bonnie. She collapsed into me and everything." Jerome spoke up laughing, making Damon and Elena snap their eyes up to him.

"Jerome?!" Elena stood up and gaped at her older brother.

Jumping down from the tree, landing on his feet, he hid the gun as he talked.

"Funny you would come here, of all places. Mommy and daddy's grave stone. I bet you miss them."

In seconds Damon had Jerome by the throat, "What'd you do to Bonnie?!"

"Damon!" Elena yelled stepping forward.

"Oh, it wasn't me who stabbed her. It was him." Jerome laughed out before he looked at Kai who was slowly walking up behind Elena.

"Wait, are you guys talking about Bonnie Bennett? Because honestly, I didn't think she was all that great." Kai chuckled, making the ascendant fly out of Elena's hand, colliding with a large tree, smashing into pieces on impact.

"No!" Elena yelled as she ran to the broken ascendant and tried to fix it, collecting all the pieces frantically.

Dropping Jerome, who coughed, Damon looked at Kai, "I'm gonna enjoy the hell out of this."

Damon tried to vamp speed to Kai, but he dropped to his knees as Kai used Liv's stolen magic.

"Oh, hey, me too! Oh yeah, Damon, I uh, stole some of Liv's magic when I tried to kill her. I think some of it might still be in my system, so, pardon me." Kai said as he made his way to Elena.

Jerome shot four vervain bullets into Damon when he tried to go for Kai, watching as Damon fell to the floor writhing in pain.

"Ah-ah-ah." Jerome laughed as he stepped towards Damon and watched as Kai crouched next to Elena.

"You missed one." Kai dropped the missing piece into her hands whilst he muttered a spell causing the ascendant to catch fire, the fire spreading up Elena's arm rapidly.

"No. No." Elena hit her arm, trying and failing to extinguish the fire screaming at the intense pain.

Getting up when he heard Elena scream, Jerome spoke to Kai with a dangerous look in his eye, "Remember our deal. I've got dibs on her!"

"Fine." Kai rolled his eyes, putting out the fire as Jerome shot a bullet into Elena to keep her incapacitated.

The distraction gave Damon enough time to get the bullets out and speed at Kai, who vanished into thin air just when he reached him. Grabbing a large branch, Damon swung with vampire strength and speed, hitting Kai and causing him to fly over the border. Not wanting to stay within reach of the vampires, Jerome started to back away to the border.

"You okay?" Damon asked as he helped Elena up.

"Huh. I guess this is that, uh, anti magic border. Which means now there's a psycho loose in Mystic Falls. And no vampires around to stop him. Whoops." Kai smirked.

"Well, it's been nice seeing ya little sis. Kill ya later." Jerome gave a little bow before stepping over the border.

Jerome only got a few steps towards Kai before he froze and started shaking all over.

"What the hell?!" He croaked out as the knife wound that killed him reappeared on his neck and he stumbled, chocking on his own blood.

"Magic resurrected you! You need to get across! You'll die!" Elena cried, worried for his safety, even after all he had done.

Not wanting his partner in crime to die, Kai ran forward and shoved Jerome back over the border and the knife stab healed instantly.

"Oh great! I'm stuck with you guys!" Jerome groaned getting up of the ground.

"See ya around!" He winked at Kai and gave a little wave before Damon ran up to him and knocked him out, throwing him over his shoulder.

Kai smirked, knowing Jerome would get out of it, and walked away to cause chaos in Mystic Falls.

Elena rang Jeremy as Damon held an unconscious Jerome.

"Jeremy?"

"Let me guess, she's not with you." Jeremy spoke, disappointment lacing his voice.

"She was on her way, but-" Elena stopped, sighing, unable to finish her sentence.

"But at the last minute, something went wrong and it didn't work. I bet Damon's fine, isn't he?" Jeremy asked sarcastically, about to hang up.

"Jeremy wait! Don't hang up!" Elena frantically asked as she could tell from his tone that Jeremy was about to hang up.

"What, Elena?" Jeremy sighed frustrated, tired of al of it.

"We don't have Bonnie, but, Jerome is here." Elena said excitedly, glancing at him.

"...What?"

"Yeah! He made it out with Kai, who by the way is in Mystic Falls. He's back!"

There was a long minute of silence before Jeremy angrily asked, "Why do you still care about him? Huh? HE KILLED OUR PARENTS, ELENA! He keeps trying to kill us. He's an insane serial killer. Why do you see redemption in him?! How many more people is he gonna kill before you see what he really is? A monster."

"He's still our brother, Jer. Our parents pushed him to this, it wasn't his fault that he snapped. We never did help him, so it's no surprise he hates us! What if we could get back the old Jerome, before he snapped?"

"He was always crazy, Elena. He was born bad." Jeremy sighed before hanging up.

A tear rolled down Elena's cheek, but she quickly wiped it away before standing up and walking through the woods with Damon to meet Alaric who was pissed at being compelled.

Kai sat, drinking expensive Gin as he waited for Tyler to return home.

"I think Gin gets a bad rap." He stood up alarming Tyler who dropped his bag in panic.

As Tyler prepared to run at him, Kai smashed the bottle against the wall and put the sharp end to his throat.

"I'd rather not kill you, but I will."

"What the hell do you want?" Tyler asked, trying not to move to stop himself getting cut from the broken glass.

"This is gonna sound crazy, but I wanna save Liv's life." Kai slowly removed the bottle from Tyler's throat and stepped back.

"Feel like making a deal with the devil?" He asked, repeating what Jerome had asked him a while ago with a smirk pulling at his lips.

When Jerome woke up, he was handcuffed to the bed in Elena's dorm room at Whitmore. Cracking his neck, he pulled on the restraints to see how tight they were. They were very tight.

"That's not gonna work." He shot his head up as he heard Damon, noticing that Damon and Elena were sat on the other bed as they watched him struggle, grim expressions on their faces.

"You told Kai to remember your deal. Are you working with him?" Elena questioned, getting uneasy as Jerome just tilted his head and laughed darkly at the question.

"Why would Kai even want to work with your crazy ass?" Damon questioned with a smirk as he knew Jerome would get mad at being called crazy.

"Crazy is a little harsh. I prefer visionary. And what can I say, I'm a charismatic guy." He chuckled raspily.

"I know you're still in there, the old you. I can help you." Elena walked closer to him, ignoring Damon trying to pull her back, warning her not to get too close.

"That's cute." Jerome hissed.

"Please Jerome."

"Uh," Jerome tilted his head, mocking thought, before he lunged towards Elena who barely managed to jump back in time, "No thanks. I like the way I am. You never helped me. You never cared about me. Nobody every helped me. Why do you care now?!"

"I-" Elena started to think up some excuse but Damon interrupted her before she could.

"Come on, Elena, this is getting us nowhere. We've took all his weapons, he can't escape, we'll come back later." Damon sighed, pulling Elena away before she nodded and they both left the room, leaving Jerome alone. They never learnt that it was a bad idea to leave Jerome alone.

Waiting until he heard them leave properly, Jerome sat up and turned to look at his hands. His grin dropping slightly as he noticed the only way out and it certainly was not pleasant. Taking a deep breathe, he quickly pushed his thumbs in causing them to dislocate, allowing him to slip them out of the cuffs before popping them back into place. Groaning at the pain and then realising the breathe in a chuckle he stood up. Scanning the room he noticed his bag in the corner and he grabbed his shotgun before walking towards the window.

He couldn't just walk out the door, he'd be caught instantly, so instead he jumped out of the window. Groaning as he landed on his back, he jumped back up and headed off the campus, shotgun swung over his shoulder and a manic grin on his face.

Time for some fun.


	16. Long time no see

Wandering around Whitmore, staying in the shadows, Jerome searched for anything interesting. He was curious as to where Kai would be, knowing he could be anywhere inside Mystic Falls or Whitmore. Planning his next move, he stumbled across fliers about the annual christmas tree decoratring in Mystic Falls, grimacing at the memories of being banned from going, locked up, forbidden from celebrating with his 'family'. He felt sick satisfaction run through him as he realised that Bonnie would be all alone on a holiday she cherished, without her friends, knowing they would be celebrating without her. Now she was the one alone, the one who could'nt celebrate, not him.

Seeing Elena run out of the hospital with a desperate face, he followed her whilst making sure he wouldn't be noticed by her.

"So, I asked around the hospital, no one has seen Jo since last night at the ER. A bunch of stab victims came in and one of them is missing as well."

Jerome sat under the slightly ajar windowsill as he listened intently to the conversation going on. Elena had led him to Alarics office, meeting up with Damon and Alaric. He had no clue who Jo was, but he was more interested in the stab victims. Maybe that was Kai?

"It was Kai. Jo knew he'd come after her, and he did." Alaric confirmed his suspicions, joy at the prospect of reuniting with his partner in crime filling him.

"Not to give you boyfriend lessons of anything, but if you knew Jo's wackjob brother was out on the loose and after her, don't you think keeping an eye on her would have been a smart move?"

Damon's smart ass comment made everything click into place for Jerome, Jo was Josette, Kai's twin sister. Grinning, he waited in anticipation for them to lead him to Kai.

"And what would you have had me do Damon? Ask you to compel Jo to stay put?" Jerome silently scoffed, that would not work as Jo is a witch who can't be compelled.

"Guys, if Kai has Jo, we need a plan."

"Plan's easy: Find Kai, kill Kai." Damon made hand movements of killing someone as he smiled up at Elena.

'As if.' Jerome laughed in his head at Damon's stupidity.

Jerome could hear movement, shoes creaking on the wooden floor, someone was stood next to the window. Sliding down slightly, Jerome held his breathe and waited.

"Just think sociopathic Ryan Reynolds." Damon spoke, clearly talking to someone on the phone.

"Grunge vibe, annoying as hell. Well, if he has half a brain, he will be hiding where vampires can't find him. So, in between levels of Mario Kart can you and little baby Gilbert maybe keep an eye out?" Jerome tilted his head as he realised Damon was talking about Jeremy and grinned at the thought of his little brother.

"Well, Beavis and Butthead are on the lookout. Anyone else brimming with confidence?" Jerome was about to raise his hand and shout 'me', but Alaric spoke before he could reveal himself.

"I mean, this just doesn't make sense."

"What could possibly not make sense about magical twins absorbing into each other?" Damon asked sarcastically, Jerome stiffling a laugh behind his hand.

"Listen, Jo needs her magic for the merge to work, okay? She got rid of that back in 1994."

"Jo doesn't have magic because it's stuffed in a knife that was stolen and hidden by yours truly. Kai won't find it."

"Yeah unless Kai does a locator spell."

"It's impossible." Damon quipped.

"Why?" Clearly the history teacher didn't know about Kai's ...condition.

"Kai was born without the ability to do magic." Jerome almost snorted at Elena's comment, Kai didn't have his own magic but he could easily steal it.

"If the only way to restore Jo's magic is to reunite her with that knife, Kai's gonna come for it." Alaric pointed out, annoyed at Damon.

"Ric's right. Even if Kai can't do the locator spell, he's gonna make it his mission to find it." Jerome rolled his eyes, agitated at Elena's needy voice.

"Kai finds it. Great. Love it." Damon cheerefully said, wide smile on his face.

"Why aren't you more concerned?" Elena questioned.

"Because if Kai goes for the knife, I will kill him. Because the knife is right here where I hid it. Ta-da." He could hear Damon moving around again, the sound of something being taken off the wall and opened reached his ears.

"Damon, there's nothing there." Elena stuttered out causing Jerome to lean his head back and smile manically, Kai had gotten what he wanted.

Sliding away from the window, Jerome sat up and started to head towards the woods, shotgun over his shoulder. Whilst he was psychotic and insane, he was still very clever, and he figured that if Kai had Jo's magic the only place he would be able to make her take her magic back and still be safe from vampires would be the border. The best place for something like that to happen, would be the cemetery and the crypts. He had a head start as he knew that Elena and Damon would be too stupid to figure it out straight away.

"What the hell is he doing?" Liv asked as she watched Kai draw a line in the dirt with a long stick.

"Probably playing tick-tack-toe with himself like a crazy person." Luke drawled, hands in pockets, annoyed at being used by Kai.

"This is the anti-magic border. Jo can get her magic back over there, while over here-" Kai trailed off as Jo started to shout, having woke up.

"Hey! What did you do to me?!"

"Sissy's up." Kai grinned as he moved forward towards the run down crypt, dropping the stick on his way.

"What the hell did you do to me?!" Jo hissed as Kai entered through the decrypt iron doors.

"I haven't seen you in 18 years. You can't muster a hello?" Kai asked as he watched Jo struggle with the chains that kept her bound.

"What did you guys do?" Jo asked Luke and Liv, betrayal lacing her voice.

"What you should have done 18 years ago." Liv hissed.

"It's not gonna work, Kai. I dont have my-"

"Magic. Yeah, I recall. You stored it in this." Kai interrupted as he pulled the rusty knife out of his jacket and stabbed Jo in the upper arm, causing her to scream out in pain.

"What the hell?!" Luke asked, taking a step forward, worried about his older sister.

"Trying to reunite Jo with her magic." Kai finished as he stabbed Jo again, Luke and Liv flinching at her screams.

"It's not working." Kai muttered as he stared into his twins eyes.

"Enough. Enough, man." Luke grabbed Kai's shoulders, pulling him away from Jo.

Pinning Luke to the wall, the knife aimed at his throat, Kai spoke warningly, "I was willing to kill you when your brain was the size of an acorn. You don't think I'll do it now?"

"Whatever, I'm not watching this." Luke muttered, pushing Kai off him and turning to Liv, ignoring a panting Jo who was clutching her wound desperately, blood seeping through her fragile fingers.

"Oh, so dramatic!" Kai laughed as he watched Luke storm out.

"All right, sissy. Let's try this again." He continued, kneeling next to Jo.

"Stop! I put my magic in there by choice. Taking it back, is also my choice. Unless, I bleed to death which will happen in the next 30 minutes. Wouldn't it be ironic if you accidentally killed me before the merge ceremony?" Jo laughed as Kai glared at her amused face.

Standing up and making his way to Liv, Kai began, "I'm going to find a bandage, while you figure out how to put the magic in this knife into our sister. Preferably, before the time I get back, so I don't have to dull it by slitting your throat."

With that threat, he walked out, leaving a scared Liv holding the bloody knife.

Jerome finally found the crypt, stalking up to it as he heard voices, seeing the line Kai drew to show the anti-magic border.

"Hey, it'll be ok. I just needed to get rid of Kai so you could free me." He heard what he assumed to be Jo.

"Look, Jo, you can't run away from this anymore. You've had 18 years of freedom. Now, take your magic back and do this. You owe it to the coven." Ah, so Liv was also here, explains how Kai got the knife.

"Is that what you think? That I've been shirking my responsibility to our family?"

"Luke's all I've got. If we merge and he dies, I may as well be dead too." Liv muttered hopelessly.

"If Kai merges with me, he'll be more powerful than any of us." Jo tried sympathetically.

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe you're strong enough to beat him? You were 22 the last time you went up against him. Since then, you've been a combat medic, you've saved hundreds of lives and your hospital worships you." Liv sighed, looking up to her sister.

"Someone has done her research." Jo laughed.

"You're my sister. And I'm yours. Look how far you've come without magic. You didn't get here by listening to people tell you that you weren't strong enough." Liv smiled, standing up and holding out the knife to Jo.

Jerome saw Kai skip into the room and smirked as he heard a commotion, leaning against the side of the door, unseen by the occupants of the crypt.

Grabbing Liv, Kai siphoned her magic causing her to scream in pain.

"Liv!"

"Can't say I didn't warn her." Kai muttered as he sighed in relief at the magic filling him, dropping Liv to the ground groaning, muttering a spell to give Liv intense pain.

"Kai stop!" Jo shouted desperately as Liv screamed holding her pounding head.

"Is it gonna be funny when I kill her with her own magic? Wait, is that funny or sad? I get my emotions mixed up." Kai laughed as Liv continued to scream, Jo unable to help her.

"Oh, I defenitely think that's funny." Jerome laughed as he revealed himself. Kai, Liv and Jo jumping as they turned to look at him, a smirk spreading across Kai's face at the sight of him.

"Who are you?!" Jo asked with wide eyes as she saw the scarring on his face and his bright suit.

Placing his hand on his chest, tilting his head Jerome asked, "Me? I'm hurt you don't know. I'm Jerome. Nice ta meet ya!"

Doing a little bow, Jerome laughed a short but effective evil laugh as he leaned against the cold stone wall before turning to face Kai.

"Long time no see, Malachai." He smirked, watching as Kai clenched his fist at the name.

"Long time no see, crazy." Tensing up, Jerome and Kai glared at each other before Jerome looked at a still screaming Liv and smiled madly.

"Heya Livvy! Hey aren't you the reason I couldn't come back from the other side? That hurt." Jerome mock pouted at her, unsure if she actually heard him in her pained state.

"Hey what's the one for fire again? It's 'incendia' rght?" Kai asked, turning his focus onto Jo again, before he started to say the spell.

"Kai, enough!" Jo shouted as she fumbled for the knife before starting to speak the spell to get her magic back.

Stopping his spell, Kai watched as Jo took her magic back, wind flying through the small room causing leaves to violently blow everywhere. When the wind died down, Kai glanced at an unconscious Liv before crouching down to Jo and placing his hands on her cheeks, feeling her magic beneath his palms.

"Ah. There it is. Oh, so predictable. I threaten Liv, you do everything it takes to save Liv."

"It's always the same with siblings. It get's boring really." Jerome laughed as Jo muttered a spell, breaking her chains.


	17. That’s a lot of travellers

Hearing a faint whistling, Kai stood and left the room. As soon as he left the crypt, Damon sped him into a nearby tree roughly.

"Cemetery? Really?"

Jogging out, Jerome shot Damon in the chest with his shotgun, tiny wooden pellets imbedding into him causing him to groan and fall back over the anti-magic border, his skin burning and blistering.

"Oh, whoops! Looks like you found the anti-magic border." Jerome giggled as he watched Kai get up and cross the line.

"I drew a line in the dirt for everyone's convenience, see? Yeah, you're welcome." He sighed before Alaric suddenly grabbed Kai, placing a gun to his head.

"Thank you. Kill him." Damon spoke as he pulled the wood pellets out of his chest, groaning as he healed.

Jerome stepped forward about to shoot Alaric, but instead dropped to the ground as his head erupted in flaring pain. Crying out, gripping his fiery locks, he fell to his knees.

"Alaric, don't!" Jo ran out, her hand pointed at a groaning Jerome on the ground, keeping him incapacitated with her restored magic.

"What are you talking about?" Alaric asked confused, holding Kai tighter.

"She's light headed and confused. I'll give her some of my blood, okay? Kill him." Damon smiled at Alaric, glaring daggers at Kai.

"No! You can't! If Kai dies, Liv and Luke have to do the merge. It's not fair to them." She ran forward, still keeping Jerome on the ground in pain.

"Who cares? Kill him."

"Ric, don't." She pleaded as Alaric cocked his gun.

"I can win. I can beat Kai. I just need a little time to get stronger." She desperately said causing Jerome to release a strained laugh muttering the word 'doubtful'.

Turning and raising her hand higher, Jo started to mutter a spell to kill Jerome but Damon sped in front of her, stopping her spell. Hands held out, he blocked her view of Jerome.

"Ah no, sorry! Can't kill him. He's Elena's brother." He chuckled awkwardly as Jo raised her eyebrows in disbelief before turning back to Alaric.

"We're moved, truly. Kill him now." Damon demanded, his attention now also on Alaric again.

"I'll figure out a way to win. Please. You have to trust me, keep him alive." Jo begged, returning her attention to Kai, who was enjoying the strife he was creating.

"Ric." Damon warned, Alaric ignoring him before knocking Kai out with the butt of his gun.

Growling annoyed, Damon turned and walked up to Jerome, kicking his head and effectively knocking him out as well.

When Jerome woke up with a massive headache, he was chained to a tree, Kai chained to a grave stone on the other side of the border. Damon was throwing rocks at the grave stone Kai was chained to, glaring as he saw Jerome was awake.

"Hey! That's no way to treat your future brother in law!" Jerome growled as Damon threw a small rock at him, barely missing his head.

"We will never be-" Kai cut Damon off before he could continue his angry rant.

"So this whole anti-magic thing, is it like a dome or a bubble? Like, say you were in a 747 flying over Mystic Falls, would you die?" Kai asked as Damon continued hurling rocks at him.

"That could be dangerous." Jerome agreed as he cracked his neck, it sore from having been knocked out so violently. He could feel blood dribbling down from his nose.

"Like if you're headed to New York, your pilot reroutes for weather." Kai trailed off in thought.

"How's this? I kill you and when you're in hell, you can ask a bar full of dead Travellers who cast the damn spell."

"That's a lot of Travellers. Must be a pretty big spell. Like a really big spell. So big, it covers every inch of an entire town." Kai muttered the last part as he dug his hands deep into the dirt ground, focusing on the magic running through the town.

Damon launched another rock at Kai just as Alaric's dingy truck pulled up.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Alaric shouted as he glared at Damon, exiting his truck.

"I'm working on my knuckleball." Damon laughed sarcastically.

"We're are keeping him alive, Damon!" Alaric yelled, walking closer and closer to Damon.

"Yes Day-Day. Little Josey wants him alive." Jerome sang as he leaned back into the tree, the bark digging into his back, the ground dirtying his suit.

"Can I ask why we continuously compromise logic for some girl you just met?" Damon snarled as he threw a rock at Jerome, hitting him in the stomach and causing his to release a half groan half laugh.

"You know, I don't know how I went so long without saying this, but you're a real dick."

"Bonnie's stuck over there because of him. Because of them. I can't take my anger out on crazy over there, so Kai will do. She's over there and I'm over here, and I hate myself for it!" Damon snarled, ignoring Jerome's murderous stare.

"Yeah, and killing him will make YOU feel better. So, let's just stop pretending for a second that this is about anyone else but YOU!" Alaric yelled angrily, poking Damon's chest.

Furious, Damon hurls a rock into his tire, popping it, "You should probably go change that tire."

"Woo what a shot!" Jerome laughed as Kai remained suspiciously silent, alerting Jerome to the fact he was up to something. He was never that quiet.

The ground under Kai's hands starting to glow red, he snapped his eyes open and smirked darkly.

As Damon sat on a stone, Jerome's eyes brightened as he saw Kai. Kai's hands planted firmly on the ground, the wind swirling around him.

"Hey, where are you? I can't hear you. What? Hey. Elena." Damon shouted down the phone, the line failing as the wind ripped around him violently.

"Oh! Say hi to Elena from me!" Jerome shouted enthusiastically, the shout falling onto deaf ears as Damon failed to hear him over the wind.

"Wha-" Damon sighed, pulling the phone away from his ear, the call cutting out. Looking around suspiciously at the steadily increasing wind.

"He stopped talking. He never stops talking." Damon stood up, walking towards Alaric as they both stared at the grave stone where Kai sat alarmed.

"You only just realised?" Jerome chuckled as he waited for something to happen.

"What happened to his chains?" Damon asked confused as he saw the chains melted around Kai's wrist, a pool of silvery metal.

"Is he chanting?" Alaric asked at the same time, just as Kai stood u from his spot on the ground and smirked at them.

"You little magic sucker. You sucked up all that magic from the Traveller spell." In response to Damon, Kai lifted Alaric and threw him against a tree with his stolen magic.

Jerome grinned darkly as he felt his chains melting, his body being released from the tree.

"A lot of magic."

Damon vampire sped Kai into a tree, going to punch him, Kai disappearing at the very last second causing Damon's fist to go into the tree. Little bits of wood flying about like debris.

"I really, really hate that move." Damon muttered before turning to Alaric who was grunting in pain.

"Ric. Hey, come on. Take my damn hand, Ric. Come on." Damon said as he reached to help Alaric up off the ground, Alaric hesitating to grab his hand.

"How are you not dead?" Alaric asked as he noticed that Damon was over the border.

"Better question, where is Jerome?!" Damon asked panicked as he noticed the ginger maniac no where in sight.

The clearing void of either of the psychopaths.


	18. You didn’t care

"I helped you with getting out. Now, you're gonna help me kidnap my sweet sister." Jerome looked at Kai as they strolled through the forest.

"I said I would. I could use someone to practice my magic on anyway, that spell was massive, magic is oozing out of me." Kai laughed as he did a locator spell to find Elena.

After several long, silent seconds, he spoke up, "She's at the Boarding house."

"What are we waiting for then?" Jerome grinned and started to skip towards the Salvatore residence, a trail of blood dried under his nose from where Damon knocked him out.

Cloaked with a invisibilty spell, Jerome stood behind Elena and watched as she knocked on the door. He grinned happily when Damon answered the door and looked straight through Elena. It was working.

"Mistletoe. Clever." She laughed, smile bright on her face.

"Hello? Anybody there?" Damon asked looking around at the empty space.

"Damon, what are you doing? Are you gonna let me in or-?" Elena trailed off with a questioning look as Damon shut the door.

"I may have put a cloaking spell on us. How genius is that?" Kai spoke from behind Jerome causing Elena to whip around.

"Hello little sister." Jerome grinned before smacking her across the face with a fire poker he found near the door, effectively knocking her out.

Picking Elena up and throwing her over his shoulder, Jerome turned and smirked at Kai, "Where now?"

Smirking back, Kai began in the direction of town, Jerome following after.

"We never went out to eat when I was a kid. I always had this fascination with chefs and fine dining. My dad actually loves to cook. He's old school of course. He taught me to measure by eye, season by taste, all that stuff. But, it's different now, in the restraunt world. I mean, everything is on timers. It's like, fries go in, you push a button, ding, you take them out. Literally no guess work." Kai complained.

They were sat in the Mystic Grill, Elena at the head of the table, Kai at the other end and Jerome in the middle with his feet up on the table.

Peeling her eyes open, sweat dripping down her forehead, arms bound with vervain, she spoke in a weak voice, "Why am I here?"

"Ah, well, I spent 18 years in abandoned restraunts and now I'm showing off the fruits of my labour." Kai stated as he took a bite of his food. Jerome was eating a blood red apple, denying the food Kai made, a glass of wine in his other hand.

"I don't mean the Mystic Grill." Elena sighed, her head clouded in dizziness.

"Oh you mean, like, 'here' here in Mystic Falls? Sorry, I'm nervous, um- You're like really pretty."

"Don't hit on my sister. It's disgusting." Jerome grimaced, throwing the half eaten apple at Kai's head, Kai barely ducking in time.

"Why am I here?" She groaned, voice shaky.

"Well, ya see, every since I killed mummy and daddy, there's been this thing nagging at my mind. I never killed you. It was so annoying. So, I'm gonna finish what I started. But, hey, why not torture you first? That's where he comes in." Jerome smiled maliciously, pointing to Kai.

"I took the spell that was keeping the supernatural out of Mystic Falls, and I like absorbed it. Like, ate it, I guess. It's cool huh? First I eat magic, and then eventually I lose it, but I mean a huge spell like that? I mean, come on, magic's oozing out of me. It's all over the place. You know, I didn't quite realise I was so out of control until I met the manager of the Grill a couple of hours ago. And he was all like, 'You can't come in here. We're closed. And you have an unconscious girl over your shoulder.' And I was like, 'Don't judge me.'" Kai said in a bad impression of the owner's voice.

"Then, he recognised me, and he started full on freaking out. It was so funny."Jerome cut in, laughing as he reminisced of the terrified owner.

"So, I gave him a heart attack. Or tried to. But all I did was make him vomit uncontrollably, so I was like, ugh, alright let's stop that. So, I tired again. I think I broke his spine? I-I'm not really sure. Then, the third time I tried the spell, he kinda exploded into blood." Kai finsihed, taking a drink of his red wine as if what he had just said was no big deal.

"And that was very messy and annoying so, I slit his throat. Then, he finally shut up." Jerome stated, looking proud of himself.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Elena asked disgusted, staring at her brother in disbelief.

"He just told you. He has too much magic. Duh. Pay attention Lena." Jerome chuckled as he stared at her.

"You know. It wasn't until my test run with the manager that I realised, if I start to merge with Jo and my gushing fountains of magic turn her into that guy, then I'm not gonna have a twin for the merge."

"That is why you are here. You're a guinea pig. Fun." Jerome leaned forward, grinning at her.

"I need to get my magic under control by practicing wiht you. Or rather, by practicing on you. Oh. Hey. P.s silver lining. After the manager stopped thrashing around, I finally managed a cloaking spell. Thank you. It's easy to do, and...undo." Kai smirked, speaking the spell. Jerome clapped his hands and chocked on his laughter as the body was uncloaked and Elena threw her chair backwards in shock, breathing heavy.

"Table for four. You had no idea." Kai laughed before he continued eating, ignoring the horror on her face.

"Why are you doing this? Why do you hate me so much?!" Elena asked once she had gotten over her shock, desperately looking at Jerome for answers.

"Why?" Jerome repeated, tilting his head, throwing the glass behind him and grinning as it smashed on the floor making Elena flinch.

"Do you remember my 9th birthday? Oh, you probably don't. Our 'loving' parents threw me a birthday party. I wasn't aloud to attend of course. They took you and Jeremy and Bonnie and everyone else to the circus. They knew, they knew that all I wanted was to go to the circus, they didn't care. So, you all went, had cotton candy and saw the shows. I was locked in my room. When they came back, you went to bed, you didn't even wish poor ole me a happy birthday. Ouch. Mommy and daddy played their favourite game. Boozing, boning, beating up Jerome. When they were finished, I remember you coming into my room. You came, saw me curled up on the floor bleeding and you just smiled. You were happy. You got a day out at the circus, you got sweets, you got all the gifts that people had sent for me. YOU DIDN'T CARE ABOUT ME! YOU NEVER DID! SO THAT IS WHY I HATE YOU. THAT IS WHY I'M DOING THIS! BECAUSE YOU DESERVE IT!" Jerome snapped, stalking towards a now crying Elena and roughly stabbing a stake into her leg, twisting when she screamed before snapping her neck roughly.

Releasing a breathe, calming down, Jerome smiled before turning to a shocked Kai.

"There. You can practice on her. She doesn't have to be awake does she?"

"Not necesarily. Are you...ok?" Kai asked, confused as to why he cared.

"Me? Never been better." Jerome smiled before sitting back down as if nothing had happened.


	19. Say hi to mom and dad

Jerome and Kai now stood in the hallways of the high school, Elena's arms chained to the ceiling. Kai was inspecting the trophy case as Jerome leaned on the lockers playing with a knife.

"We're in my high school?" Elena asked confused as she woke up, glancing at her surroundings.

"Plenty of restrooms. No flammable surfaces. And everyone's on winter break, still. You know, it's no wonder America got dumb while I was locked up, they're never in school."

"Offended." Jerome mockingly raised his hand ad Kai bent down to look at a picture of the cheer squad.

"Is that you? Oh, and there's Bonnie. You guys look so innocent. Smiling like nothing bad could ever happen to you." Kai smiled at the photo.

Stepping up next to Kai, Jerome smirked, "Ha. Memories. Everyone else in that picture got barbequed."

Seeing Elena grimace, he continued raising a hand to his mouth in mock embarrassment, "Oops, sorry about that."

"Anyway, would you mind if I try to turn your blood into acid again?" Kai asked, straightening up and staring at Elena.

"Again?" Elena asked in disbelief, squinting her eyes.

"Yeah. You wouldn't know though, I had already snapped your neck." Jerome muttered as he continued to stare at the photo.

"That's how you got here in the first place. I was trying the whole acid-blood thing, and I almost set fire to the Mystic Grill, that would have drew unwanted attention so we came here." Kai gestured to their surroundings.

"Jerome, you don't have to do this! I'm your sister!" Elena begged as Kai lifted his hand to continue his spell practice, hoping to finally get through to Jerome.

"No...but it's fun." Jerome laughed, walking up to stand in front of Elena, wanting to watch her reaction.

Just as Kai began the spell, Elena leaned forward staring deep into Jerome's eyes, doing the one thing she didn't want to have to do.

"Kill him. Free me." She compelled in a monotone voice.

Jerome froze, taking the gun out of the back of his trousers before turning and pointing it at Kai, robotic with his movements.

"Jerome." Kai warned, but he simply cocked the gun.

Just as Kai was about to stop Jerome with magic, he burst out laughing, the croaky sound echoing through the school halls.

"Did-did you really think that would work. News flash Lena, I can't be compelled. Every since my little resurrection, my soul has been tainted with dark magic, preventing me from being compelled. Oh, I'm hurt that you would try to compel me though. I thought you loved me." Jerome mocked, holding his breathe and Kai snickered at his performance.

"I didn't know you were such a good actor." Kai commented grinning before turning back to Elena.

Speaking the spell again, Elena started to scream in pain, Jerome giddily clapping.

"Kai! Please! STOP! Stop it Kai! Stop it! My ring! Kai, you're melting my ring! KAI, STOP IT!" Elena screamed, using all her strength and ripping her chains from the ceiling, speeding away, causing the lights to break.

"Well that was dramatic." Jerome huffed before following after Elena slowly, knowing she wouldn't be able to leave the school as her daylight ring was melted.

Repeating the word 'no' like a mantra, Elena raced to the sink in the science classroom, rinsing her hand. Trying and failing to salvage her ring.

"I take it that ring meant something to you? I never understood sentimental attachment to things because then it's so upsetting when you lose them." Kai spoke from behind her with a confused face.

Seeing what Elena was doing, Jerome grabbed Kai pulling him back just as Elena put her hand in the sunlight causing it to go up in flames and shoving her hand into the gas from the pipe on the desk. Jerome having pulled Kai back in time, only his t-shirt got singed, not him. Getting blown back, Kai landed on Jerome causing him to groan and shove him off.

"Ouch. You're welcome." Jerome huffed before getting up and following after Elena who had ran out.

Seeing her run into the cafeteria, Jerome indicated for Kai to wait on the other side of the door whilst he stalked up to her.

"Damon! Jerome and Kai have me at the high school! I need your help!" She cried down the phone.

Smirking, Jerome slammed a locker causing her to flinch and hurriedly hang up the phone. Rushing to the door, he grinned as she ran straight into Kai. Stumbling backwards, Kai lifted his hand trying to snap her neck. The tables all flew in random directions as his magic went haywire, causing Jerome to take a step back to avoid being hit.

"Really?" Kai asked annoyed, trying again and failing again.

"Hey! Work out your witch woo! I nearly got hit there!" Jerome walked up behind Elena, announcing his presence, Kai rolling his eyes at him.

"Damn it." Kai muttered as he tried the spell again and it failed again.

Watching Elena get up off the ground and attempt to run away, he tried again, this time succeeding. Neck snapping, she crumbled to the ground at Jerome's feet. Raising his hand into a fist, he fist bumped the air, proud he finally did it.

"Bingo."

"Finally." They spoke at the same time, Kai glaring at a smirking Jerome.

Picking up her arm, Jerome dragged Elena to a nearby table as Kai found some rope and drenched it in vervain, tying her to the leg of the table.

When she finally woke up, she struggled against the restraints, groaning at the burn of the vervain.

"Oh, hello." Kai said as he saw her awake, drinking from a can he got from the vending machine.

"Nice shirt." Elena commented sarcastically.

"Oh thanks! Someone burned the other one. Which was awesome by the way. I am starting to see why Damon digs you. I mean, you are crazy-pants. Oh, it sucks about that shirt though." Kai complained.

"What did I say about flirting with my sister? It's disgusting. Stop it! Huh. I guess crazy must run in the family." Jerome snickered, glaring at Kai from his spot sat on the table next to where Elena was.

"So you care about an inanimate object, but not the people you kill?" Elena asked disgusted, ignoring Jerome's comment.

Kai snorted at her, "Is this gonna be like an episode of Ricki Lake where I come face to face with my demons and change for the better?"

"Welcome to my world. She's always trying to change me." Jerome laughed watching Elena carefully, making sure she didn't try anything.

"Have you really not cared about anyone? Ever?" Elena asked in disbelief.

"I guess I liked my brother Joey. We played Dr. Mario together and he'd always win. Actually, one of my favourite memories is when I finally beat him." Kai paused, Elena smiling at the humanity he was showing, "Of course, my favourite memory is when I finally beat him to death. You don't have to waste your energy trying to change me. If Ricki taught me anything, it's that liking yourself is the most important thing. And I like me."

"See Elena, you can't magically change everyone you meet." Jerome laughed as he leant down to her level, hissing in her ear, "You can't change us."

"If the spell you're going for is to creep me out, it's working." Elena spoke as Kai sat cross legged in front of her, simply staring.

"Shh Lena. He's focusing." Jerome hit Elena's shoulder hard, making her shut up, just as Kai finally got the spell. Moving his finger, he traced the letter 'K', causing it to be cut into her cheek.

"Ow! Ow! What are you doing?!" She cried out, the letter healing straight away as Kai smiled triumphantly.

Leaning back on the table, Jerome folded his hands over his stomach, stretching out so he was lay on his back.

"This is getting boring. Do a torture spell or something, or I'm gonna do something myself."

"Just working on my self control." Kai replied, wiping the blood from her face carefully with his thumb.

Jumping up from the table, Jerome walked to the vending machine, smashing it with his elbow and grabbing a pack of skittles. Lying back down, he threw one into the air, effectively catching it in his mouth as Kai walked out to put his empty drink can in the bins. When Kai came back into the room, he grabbed Jerome's arm and dragged him out of the room again.

"What are you doing?" Jerome hissed, pulling his arm out of Kai's bruising grasp.

"Damon and Jo are here. They think they are cloaked. We let them take Elena, then we ambush them. You like dramatics, right?" Kai questioned, a dark look in his eyes.

"Oh, I love dramatics and flare. She doesn't have her daylight ring, so she can't just wander out the front door. If I remember correctly, there are tunnels under us. I think you can get into them from the Boiler Room? Yeah." Jerome spoke, trying to remember the last time he was in the tunnels although it was before his death so it was very blurry.

"And how do you get to the Boiler Room?" Kai asked, slightly impatient, his tone agitating Jerome.

"Ugh...corridors? I dunno, everything before I got stabbed in the neck is kinda blurry. I wonder why!" Jerome snapped, his emerald eye burning as he stepped closer to Kai.

"They are getting away while we stand arguing like a bunch of kids. Let's go." Kai rolled his eyes before making his way to the exit, walking out into the halls with a still fuming Jerome trailing after him.

Quickly stopping, Jerome and Kai stared at the end of the hallway to see the trio consisting of Elena, Damon and Jo trying to find their way out. Coming to a halt, they figured it would be now they could make their grand entrance.

"You okay?" Elena asked, spinning around as Jo coughed violently.

"Yeah. Three people's just a lot more to cloak than two." Jo tried to reassure before collapsing, Damon catching her before she hit the floor.

"Woah. Why is your nose bleeding?" Damon asked worried. Finding amusement in the trio, Jerome leaned against a nearby locker as Kai finally spoke up.

"I have a guess. Magic's hard, isnt it Jo?" He smiled sarcastically at his twin, a mocking manner surrounding him.

"I'm so sorry." Jo whimpered as she collapsed into Damon's shoulder, clutching on tightly.

"Don't sweat it. I want them to see me as I kick their ass. Now get out of here, okay?" Damon gently pushed her towards the exit, watching as she limped away.

Jerome stifled his chuckle at her pathetic attempts to get away, smirking as he felt himself being cloaked. Looking over to Kai he watched him cloak himself and then Elena.

"Where's Elena?! Where's Jerome?" Damon looked around frantically as Jerome made his way over to Elena, being able to see her as he was also cloaked.

"Oh. Are we not cloaking people anymore? I thought that's what this was." Kai looked around questioning, vanishing as Damon sped to him.

Moving around her, Jerome grabbed Elena and pinned her to his chest tightly, blocking all movement. Having been around so much vervain, she didn't have the strength to push him off her. Turning to look at Kai, Jerome nodded his head, sending him the signal to make it look like Elena was Kai.

Hearing a whistle, Damon frantically spun, seeing Kai waving at him instead of seeing Elena. Jerome let go of her just as Damon sped to a broom, snapping it in half and hurling it into the fake Kai's chest. Smirking proud, Kai looked at a chocking Elena before revealing himself.

"Oh, that's gotta hurt." Jerome spoke sympathetically, shaking his head as he appeared behind Elena.

"I am definitely getting the hang of this. Clocking spells, illusions, it's all the same wheelhouse." Kai spoke, appearing next to Elena, raising his hand and removing the illusion spell to reveal Elena instead of him.

"No." Damon muttered heartbroken as he saw Elena choke on her on blood before she fell into the locker, then to the floor.

Kneeling down next to her, Jerome spoke in her ear as he pushed the wood further into her chest, "Well, say hi to mom and dad from me."

Standing and wiping his now bloody hand on his jacket, Jerome spun and walked to Kai who was keeping Damon incapacitated with a powerful aneurism spell.

"There's some stuff I gotta do. I'll let you go get your sister, I'll meet up with you later." Jerome spoke before skipping off, excited that his sister was finally dying.

"Where?" Kai called after him, his voice echoing slightly.

"Where else? Mystic Falls." Jerome saluted jokingly before ducking out the door, leaving Kai to deal with his sister, not knowing that Kai was moments away from being caught.

Making his way to Mystic Falls, Jerome pondered on the thought of having any loyal followers left from his time before he died. Grinning crazily, he knew exactly where he wanted to go, exactly where he needed to go. The circus.


	20. The merge

The blood red, run down tent on the outskirts of Mystic Falls stood in rumble, the once chaotic circus now a forgotten memory. Grin never leaving his face, Jerome skipped into the circus grounds, his eye searching for any sign of life. Spotting a makeshift bed and cover, his smile widened as he waltzed over, using the barrel of his shotgun to move the blankets away, coming face to face with a gun barrel pointed between his eyes.

Laughing manically, he watched as one of his followers blinked in shock, hurriedly putting the gun down and smiling at their leader.

"J-Jerome? But...you died."

"I know, I was there. Sheesh I remember you guys being more fun than this. Where is everyone? They waiting to jump out and shout boo?" Glancing around jokingly, Jerome's eyes narrowed in suspicion as the follower gulped nervously, his eyes holding dread.

"Everyone left, sir. After you..died..some ran away, the cops caught some and the vampires you warned us about compelled the rest to leave. There's only me and a small handful left now." Ducking his head, the follower flinched as he spoke, wary about annoying the crazy ginger.

"Hmm, whatever, there's always more..."Trailing off, Jerome looked into the distance thoughtfully before his eyes snapped back to the follower, a manic glint appearing as he smirked, "What's your name?"

"B-Bruce sir."

"Well Brucey, you're coming with me, you gotta meet my new partner in crime, we got big things planned!" Walking backwards, Jerome giggled before he spun around and marched off, Bruce hurrying to follow behind him.

"Ugh that idiot got caught! I leave him for two seconds and he's caught by the Scooby gang and my annoying sister. Okay, Brucey, you and I are going to be all heroic and rescue hot stuff and then you will go and find any followers I have left." Leaving no room for argument, Jerome skipped off to look for Kai.

Stepping into the apartment at Whitmore college, Jerome titled his head seeing Tyler unconscious on the floor with Damon stood over him hanging up a phone. Shooting him in the back once, Jerome ordered Bruce to keep shooting him to keep him down whilst he walked up to where Kai was stirring in his sleep.

"Wakey, wakey sleeping beauty! Need me to kiss ya?"Tilting his head, Jerome watched as Kai groaned waking up, rolling his eyes at the ginger.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Damon demanded as he got the upper hand, pinning Bruce to the wall by his throat and glaring at Jerome.

"Woah no need for the attitude grumpy pants! You jealous I offered gorgeous a kiss and not you?"

Letting go of Bruce, ignoring him as he ran out of the room, Damon stepped forwards with an angry look in his eyes as he watched the two psychopaths.

"What? Gingers not your type?"

Growling frustrated, Damon glared threateningly as he walked up to Jerome, only stopping when Kai sat up and tried to work magic on him and failing.

"Ooh trying to pop a blood vessel in my brain? Sorry, not gonna work. Looks like all that magic you sucked away drained away while you were asleep, which is good for me. But don't worry, I know where you can get more."

"You really think I'm gonna trust you?" Kai questioned Damon sarcastically whilst Jerome mockingly shook his head 'no'.

"No. And I'm not gonna trust you. I jus happen to need a magic siphon and you're the only game in town. You," Damon turned to Jerome, "we don't need."

Hopping off the bed to stand by Jerome, Kai looked to Tyler's body by his feet, grinning as he spoke "Let's discuss my fee. Oh and he comes with, can't leave my homicidal friend behind can I?"

"Alright I need a 12 gauge needle, stat. Not sure what I'm gonna do with it, but I need it." Kai spoke as he made his way towards the hospital bed holding a sickly Liz.

"You're not a doctor so stop playing games, because I am a vampire and I will rip your head off if you screw this up." Elena spoke, clenching her teeth in annoyance, flinching when Jerome dropped his arm over her shoulder and laughed at her comment.

"Hmm Kai dressed as a doctor? How kinky. Love it when you threaten people baby sis, but you're terrible at it, leave the threats to me." Winking at Kai, Jerome sighed as Damon yanked him off Elena, shoving him to the other side of the bed to stand near a chuckling Kai.

"What she said, so do your stupid little magic suction trick and suck the magic right out of her. Right now."

"I get what you two see in each other, it's very dys-fun-ctional. Heh. See what I did? Stressing the fun in dysfunctional?" Laughing at the joke, Jerome clapped his hands together as he agreed with Kai.

"Just get on with it Kai. Listening to you talk makes me wanna die." Liz spoke up, her voice weak and throaty.

"I'm hurt! I thought I was the only one who made you feel like that Lizzy?!" Jerome joked as Kai grinned.

Seeing Elena roll her eyes, her annoyance clearly raising to a tipping point, Kai placed one hand on Liz's face and one on her arm, exhaling slowly before he began to siphon the magic from her system.

"Is it working?" Damon questioned in mild alarm as the heart beat monitor stated to beep rapidly.

"I have no idea." Elena replied just as Jo walked into the room, freezing when she saw her twin brother and the scarred ginger.

"What the hell is going on?! What is he doing here?"

"Hey sis, little busy. Be with you in a jiffy." Kai looked towards his sister, a dark look in his eyes and a threat layered in with his words.

"Jiffy? Who still says jiffy? Jifffffy." Dragging the word out on his tongue, testing it, Jerome went ignored by the occupants of the room.

"Elena?"

"I'm gonna let Damon explain."Elena pointed to Damon, causing him to walk out of the room with Jo before she turned back to glare at the remaining two, "I'm staying with you."

"There, all one." After a brief pause of silence, Kai spoke, letting go of Liz and stepping back as Elena hurried to her side to ensure she was okay.

"Sherif, hey, how are you feeling? Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I think so-" Liz stopped mid sentence, groaning and grabbing her chest as the heart monitor went crazy, causing Elena to panic.

"Oh my god. No, no, no. I think she's having a heart attack!"

"That is so tragic. You know, cause you guys jumped through hoops to get the magic out of her system but then, her ticker is just not strong enough to take a little siphoning."

"I could always put her out of her suffering?" Jerome offered, stepping forwards only to be blocked by Elena who snarled at Kai.

"Kai, you have to fix this!" Placing a cloaking spell on the two of them, Kai smiled at the feeling of magic flowing through his veins as they went to find his twin, ready to merge.

"Good old neck snap, never gets old." Jerome spoke, watching Damon's temporarily deceased body crumple to the ground as Kai stood in front of his twin, removing the cloaking spell from them.

"Isn't this the part where you start running?" Kai spoke up in a confused voice.

"I've spent my entire life running from you. I'm not running anymore." Jo spoke with fake confidence, willingly going with Kai as he grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the hospital into the nearby abandoned park, Jerome trailing behind.

"Look at those pretty planets, all twinkly and bright. Oh Josette, you would not believe how sick I am of eclipses." Kai spoke, staring at the sky as they came to a stop, releasing his bruising grip on her arm.

"Let's just get this over with."

"If you think I didn't spend the last 18 years in solitary thinking about how you screwed me over last time, you're wrong. So if this is just another set up...I'll get my friend here to rip something out more important than a spleen, and he just loves torture."

"Maybe your tongue? Or your heart?" Grinning sadistically Jerome laughed at the fear on her face.

"Why are you helping him?" Jo pleaded with Jerome, searching for any sign of humanity in his cold eyes.

"Because he is sooo much fun. Much more fun than the usual bozos in this town." Jerome laughed, leaning forward and gesturing with his hands as he spoke.

"So..any closing remarks?" Kai smirked at her, ignoring the slight tug at his heart that someone actually wanted to be around him.

"You're a parasite. You killed the people I loved. You shove a hunting knife in my gut. You destroyed my life. Now , I'm gonna destroy yours."

"Do-hah-do you really think that was threatening? Oh the look on your face is priceless!" Throwing his head back and laughing, Jerome cackled at her words.

"This is a family matter." Glaring at him, Jo used her magic to knock him unconscious, his body immediately dropping, a single red hair falling in front of his eye.

"I guess we'll see." Roughly grabbing her hand,Kai dragged the knife down her palm, furious at her actions, knowing he couldn't just kill her.

The feeling of strong arms wrapped around him as he swayed back and forth let a barely conscious Jerome know he was being carried by someone, however his foggy mind refused to let him open his eyes as his mind faded back into unconsciousness.

The next time he awoke, Jerome was lying on a lumpy mattress, groaning as he rubbed his pounding head, he really hated magical knock outs.

"Good, you're up. I was beginning to worry you weren't gonna wake."Kai spoke from his spot on the other side of the college dorm room he hijacked.

"Ugh what happened?" Groaning, Jerome sat up, staring expectantly at Kai.

"Well, I won. Jo knocked you out, little Lukey showed up, knocked Jo out and took her place, merging with me. I always win." Kai spoke with a shrug, a happy glint in his eyes. An unfamiliar feeling of happiness spreading through his body at the sight of Jerome being awake and okay.

"What now?" Jerome questioned with an insane grin.


	21. Born Bad

"Hello?" Stepping into the Salvatore house, Kai cheerily called out as he searched for Damon and Elena, Jerome trudging behind him with a look of annoyance plastered across his face.

"-On his way to Portland!"Damon finished the sentence just as the two stepped into the room.

"Whew! I forgot how massive his house was."

Scoffing at Kai's words, Jerome sneered announced his presence, "I didn't know it was this big, you know, spending all my time here locked in a basement."

"Yum, cupcakes!" Ignoring Jerome's words and the threatening glares Damon was sending him, Kai stepped towards the cupcakes, immediately grabbing one.

"Sorry, are we interrupting something?" Kai questioned using a sarcastic tone, however Jerome frowned at the slight edge of sincerity in his words.

"What are you doing here?" Damon groaned,Elena had yet to take her gaze away from her brother.

"Funniest thing. We need your help." Coughing loudly, Jerome glared at Kai, "I need your help."

"Why would we give a letter to Jo?" Elena spoke up for the first time, crossing her arms as Kai jumped onto the table whilst eating the cupcake, Jerome groaning in boredom and deciding to simply lie on the kitchen floor. Throwing a small dagger into the air above his face and catching it, repeating this motion over and over again, Jerome pouted like a child when Elena used her vampiric speed to catch it mid air and take it away from him.

"I can't find her using a locator spell and you know, good on her because under normal circumstances I'd be super jazzed to gouge out her belly button." Licking the frosting off the cupcake, Kai spoke casually as Elena and Damon gave him looks of disgust.

"Why would we help you Kai?"

"In case you haven't figured out by now, I'm a sociopath."

"Well duh!"Jerome muttered as Kai spoke the obvious.

"I know, shocker. I like being a sociopath, you know? I'm not burdened by things like guilt or love." As Kai spoke this, his eyes darted to Jerome for a split second, luckily with his eyes closed Jerome didn't see, however Elena caught it with a frown.

"So then, this merge happened with my brother Luke, and I won. Which was great because I absorbed his ability to do magic…but now I can't stop thinking about how Luke died. How Liv's life is ruined. For horrible reason, I can't shake…how badly I feel about it." Shaking his head, Kai sighed tiredly at the emotions surging through him.

"You feel bad?" Elena asked in utter disbelief.

"Yeah. So when I absorbed Luke's magic,I must have got some of his qualities or something, like empathy. So I googled how to process emotional pain and they said if you write everything down in a letter and burn it, you'll be healed. So I started writing and this water literally started pooling in my eyes. Has that ever happened to you? Like, like water just oozing out of my eyeballs like I'm some alien creature excreting fluids."

"You mean you cried?"

"Yes! He did. And he would. Not. Stop. Got to the point I was considering gouging out his eyes." Jerome spoke through gritted teeth, refusing to get off the hard tile floor. Elena and Damon shared looks of doubt at the situation, unable to believe that Malachai Parker actually cried.

"And after that was done, I burned the letter. The feelings, whoop, they're still there. So I really feel strongly that Jo need to know how sorry I am for destroying our family." Looking down guiltily, Kai finished.

"Yada, yada, yada. What a boring story. Long story short, I think my sociopath is broken and if you giving this stupid letter to Jo is gonna fix him, you're gonna do it. Alrighty then?" Standing up, Jerome glared sinisterly at Elena and Damon, sanding up to his full height so he could tower over Elena as he spoke.

"Okay I think we're done here." Damon stepped up to Jerome, pushing him away from Elena with a protective edge in his voice as he spoke.

"Actually," Elena paused Damon,"what if there's something he can do for us in exchange?"

"I knew you had a manipulative side in you sis! It's in your blood."

"Okay, so we know Jo stored her magic in a hunting knife. Bonnie sent hers over with Miss Cuddles. What receptacle of magic am I not thinking of?" Elena was stood against the wall, Kai leaned over the pool table inspecting the broken ascendant, Jerome sitting on the pool table swinging his legs back and forth and Damon was walking around the room drinking alcohol.

"Let me give you a hint. Scorned lover." Damon spoke in a mysterious voice.

"Katherine?" Jerome found it hilarious that Katherine was what Elena immediately thought.

"Older."

"Silas."

"Hotter."

"I dunno, Silas was definitely hot." Elena tiled her head in thought while Damon looked disgusted.

"For once, I agree with you, dopplewrench." Jerome laughed, fantasying about Silas and Stefan, once again missing the jealous look Kai threw him.

"Qetsiyah!" Damon gave Elena a wink and a thumbs up to confirm her guess.

"Her blood is on Silas's headstone. It's filled with magic."

"Yup, so in Bonnie-land, that means on an island off Nova Scotia, there's a magical battery waiting to be tapped. We just need to remind Bonnie of that." Damon grinned at his solution.

"And what reminded you?" Jerome raised his eyebrow, actually curious to know the answer to Elena question.

"I was just gonna plan a trip there, change of scenery, you know. There's only so much you can take of Mystic Falls on repeat."

"Oh, thank god! You two together, is still totally revolting to me. Finally, a familiar feeling. Luke didn't take me over completely." Kai laughed, sighing in relief as he looked up.

"Well thank god for that, you're hot doll-face, but if you really had gone completely Lukey I would probably have to kill you which would be such a waste." Jerome slapped Kai's cheeks once, happy that his partner in crime was still in there somewhere. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion when slight red blush peaked on Kai's cheek.

"Your cheeks gone all red. What's up with that?" Poking his cheek, Jerome laughed croakily when Kai swatted his hands and move away, Elena and Damon sharing a knowing look.

"What the hell are they doing here?" Jerome's eyes brightened with mischief when Jeremy walked in to the room.

"Broski!"Jumping from the table and running towards his brother, Jerome was stopped by Damon who grabbed his arm in a tight, warning grip.

"YOU stay away from me! You belong in an asylum." Jeremy pointed at Jerome angrily, Kai looking up at the sibling conflict that was taking place.

"I'm hurt! So how ya been? Oh you look great! To think I used to be the handsome Gilbert! Being a hunter suits you brother." Giggling, Jerome relaxed in Damons grip, who still wouldn't let go of him knowing his history with trying to kill Jeremy.

"How've I been? How do you think I've been?! You killed our parents, you're crazy!" Stepping forwards, Jeremy glared at Jerome who froze up, his gaze turning stone cold as a nefarious laugh fell out of his cracked lips.

"Crazy? No, no, no I'm not crazy, I'm a visionary. Oh, we could all go insane with one bad day bro, although I guess for me it was one bad life! What you call 'sanity' is just a prison in your mind that stops you from seeing that you're just tiny little cogs in a giant, absurd machine. WAKE UP!" Jeremy flinched back as Jerome reached for him, Damon holding him back with his supernatural strength as Elena stepped in front of Jeremy to protect him.

"You blame us and our parents for everything that has gone wrong in your life, but the truth is, Jerome, you were born bad!" Jerome's eye twitched at the words, Kai having stopped what he was doing took a step forwards, something in him wanting desperately to comfort Jerome and murder everyone who ever hurt him.

"Born bad, huh? So is that why you let mommy and daddy beat me? Is that why you stood and watched whilst I was turned into this! This is your fault, every single life I take is on you and Elena and our parents. Nobody ever helped me, ever." His voice broke off, he looked to the ground before he burst into laugher, "Ah it's been fun bro, I looove catching up with you! We should do this more often. Hah remember your birthday and I held a cake knife to your throat? Oh good times!"

The room filled with a tense silence after Jerome finished, Kai clenching his fists to stop himself from killing Jeremy, his heart heavy for with an unknown emotion. Elena grabbed Jeremy, pulling him from the room so she could explain the situation to him and to get him out of Jerome's sight, worried for his safety. Once Jeremy was out of sight, Jerome's body relaxed, Damon finally letting go of him, shoving him towards Kai who watched him with an unreadable expression.

"I think that went well." Laughing, Jerome walked back to the pool table and lazily sat on it again.


	22. People don’t change

"People don't just change like that." Jeremy spoke once he returned to the room.

"People don't usually merge with their siblings either." Damon snarked, raising his glass of bourbon to his lips.

"Ah for the record, I would have been fine with any of Luke's qualities. The hair, the whole gay thing...although might have got that actually," Kai tilted his head before continuing, smirking as Jerome winked at him while the others in the room groaned at the flirting, "you know, maybe not the height actually."

"You seriously buy this?" Jeremy pointed to Kai, frowning at Elena.

"Look, I'm not saying that we have to like him, if there's a way for us to tell Bonnie how to get out-"

Cutting Elena off, Jeremy spoke up again, agitation lacing his voice,"We should trust the guy who changed personalities over night and is currently besties with Jerome?!"

"I take offence to that! I am a great person to be besties with, right Kai?"

Rolling his eyes, Kai looked up at Jeremy, ignoring Jerome, "Think of it like Elena in reverse. I know she was human, pure, dating the good Salvatore,"

"She was never pure or good!" Scoffing, Jerome jumped down from the pool table, pouring himself a glass of alcohol and then making one for Kai.

"Then she became an undead blood-vacuum, stopped caring about right and wrong, started dating the bad one." Kai finished, smiling as he took the glass from Jerome, clinking his glass with Jerome's before taking a drink.

"That's not how it happened." Elena rolled her eyes as she spoke annoyed.

"That is exactly what happened!" Jerome giggled, pointing to Elena whilst holding his sides.

"I'm just paraphrasing what Damon told me in the prison world." Kai shrugged not caring, taking a sip from his drink.

"Speaking of, there's a witch over here that we'd like to save. So, why don't you get your Gemini jumper cables and fix that thing?" As Damon spoke, Jeremy glared daggers at Jerome who pretended not to notice, sitting next to Kai.

"Okay." Kai smirked, downing his drink before going to work on the ascendant. Elena, Damon and Jeremy watching on in anticipation while Jerome groaned bored.

"So I can't send us back psychically, but I can probably send a part of us back." Kai spoke after a long silence, completing the ascendant and looking up at the expectant faces, chuckling slightly as he saw Jerome act asleep.

"Probably?" Elena frowned, glancing at Damon before speaking to Kai.

"You remember the movie, Ghost? Okay, well Bonnie is gonna be Demi Moore because she's the alive one obviously, and well all be a collective Patrick Swayze. The ghost. By the way, how much does that suck? About Patrick Swayze."

"Will she be able to see us or not, Kai?" Elena rolled her eyes, interrupting his rambling.

"I dunno, I've never done this before. So lets just all take a deep breathe right? Close our eyes." Everyone closed their eyes as Kai began to chant, Jerome seeing an opportunity stood directly in front of Jeremy and closed his eyes with a grin.

The wind blew viciously around their forms, a bright light slipping past their closed eyelids before everything stopped. Jeremy opened his eyes, screeching and falling backwards in shock as Jerome stood inches from him, laughing manically at the boys reaction.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Jeremy practically screamed at Jerome once he had regained his composure, Elena and Damon moving to pull a still laughing Jerome away from him.

"A lot." Jerome replied to Jeremy, still giggling as Damon shoved him towards Kai who was chuckling at the interaction, catching Jerome by the arm before he could fall from the harsh push.

"Okay from now on, you two psychos stay together and away from Jeremy."

"How close together, Damon?" Kai wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, joining Jerome in more laughter at the disgusted look on Damon's face as he walked away.

"What happened to the pool table?" Damon spoke as he turned away, pausing and pointing at the now lush dining table where the pool table used to be.

"Oh my god."

"Bonnie? Bonnie! She can't hear me." Jeremy looked down sad after racing towards Bonnie who sat at the table, his heart breaking.

"We can't touch anything either. Nice spell, Kai." Damon ran his hand through a table of alcohol, his hand going straight through the bottles.

"Wrong! I can touch you!" Jerome stepped forward, punching Damon in the face to prove a point, Damon tripping to the side before rushing for Jerome with a snarl.

"Hey hey hey! Look what's she doing?" Kai stepped forward and pointed at Bonnie, placing Jerome behind him when Damon growled at him angrily, baring his teeth. Hoping to get the attention of Jerome, he didn't want to see him dead.

"This place is my own personal hell." Damons voice filled the room, everyone turned to see Bonnie watching a video of Damon on an old camera.

"Drama queen." Bonnie laughed sadly, oblivious to the people watching her.

"I know right!" Jerome nodded, agreeing with Bonnie, not caring that she couldn't hear him.

"Reporting to you live from retro world, I'm Bonnie Bennett. Joining us today in the studio is special guest Damon Salvatore." Bonnie's voice was next on the video.

Damon went to say something only to roll his eyes in annoyance, a faint "Damon I'm bored!" Echoing through the room from the video, Jerome's voice clearly agitated as he screamed for Damon.

"You did this whilst you had me chained up like an animal?!" The real Jerome pointed accusingly at the video, a look of betrayal in his eyes.

"Well maybe you shouldn't have tried to kill Bonnie on our first day here!" Damon snarked back, already tired of his presence.

"Well next time I wont try anything, I'll succeed."

Damon was about to respond to the threat only for his eyes to catch something, his breath hitching as he whispered, "no."

"What?" Elena frowned confused by the shift in tone.

"That bottle of bourbon is the oldest one in the house. We made a pact, if we couldn't take being trapped here lone for one more day, we'd...we'd kill that entire bottle and then we'd kill ourselves."

"You were going to kill yourself and leave me tapped in a dungeon?!" Jerome rushed towards Damon angry, a small pocket knife in his hand as he swiped at him.

"Stop." Kai raised his hand, focusing as Elena and Damon tried to pin Jerome to knock him unconscious, freezing them both with his magic.

A sudden flash of light blinded them.

Gasping awake, the group found themselves back in the present, Jerome somehow waking up with his head on Kai's lap.

"Wait, what happened? Why are we back here?" Elena got up, scanning her surroundings.

Kai gave a pained groan as he woke, blushing despite his pain when he saw the position Jerome was in.

"I don't know, spell must require too much magic. I lost my connection."

"Then reconnect."Damon spoke up demanding, watching as the two psychopath stood up, kai wobbling weakly.

"Not that easy. See this blood? Guessing that's not a good sign." Kai gestured to his nose which w bleeding, Jerome frowning in anguish. He liked Kai's face, he didn't want it covered in his own blood, anyone else's blood would have been fine but not Kai's.

"Bonnie is going to kill herself." Elena sounded close to tears as she spoke, ignoring the toll it was taking on Kai.

"Can she do that? Can she die in the prison world?"

"I couldn't. Of course, it was my own personal solitary confinement. They didn't want me to end my sentence early by killing myself. Oo I tried every method in the book. I drove down to D.C because there was this museum that had an actual guillotine." Kai smiled, reminiscing as they group watched with horror.

"How you'd reattach your head?" Jerome tilted his head, giggling at the mental image of Kai wondering around headless whilst looking for his head.

"We get it, for whoever is not lucky enough to be you, dead means dead." Jeremy scowled, his worry for Bonnie growing steadily.

"I think that was a compliment." Jerome nodded at Kai who nodded back in response, agreeing with him.

"We have to stop her, we have to give her hope, send her a message somehow."

"Hope? And you say I'm crazy." Jerome snorted at the idea.

"How? She couldn't hear us."

"The message is already there. In the atlas, I scribbled some notes on Nova Scotia, we just have to get her to see it." Damon looked of thoughtfully as Kai lazily sat down. Jerome, seeing the state Kai was in, poured him another glass of alcohol and handed him it.

"Alright but how can we open an atlas if we can't touch anything?"

"We need to get Kai to crank up his witchy-woo, don't we? So we can make psychical contact."

"All while sending the three of you back over there? Sure, yeah. Why don't I reanimate your dead parents for a tea party while I'm at it?"

"Can you do that?" Jerome leaned towards him, his face holding a sadist grin.

"Sorry. Insensitive." Kai frowned, looking down guilty due to the new emotions he had gotten.

"Did he just apologise?" Jerome jerked back, as if he had been hit, looking to Elena for an answer.

"What if you just send me back?" Jeremy spoke up before Elena could speak.

"What? No!"

"That might work. I focus all my magic on one person, it might be enough of a boost that he could physically interact. If I can hold the spell."

"And if you cannot?" Damon glared at Kai, sensing a 'but'.

"The magic overwhelm me and I can't pull Jeremy out, he'll be stuck over there for all eternity." Jerome looked down, thinking, this could seriously hurt Kai and he was going to do it anyway just because he felt guilty. He vowed then, that until he could get his Kai back to normal, he would protect him from these stupid emotions and the dumb decisions they were causing him to make.

"Jer-"

"Don't say anything. If I can get through to her, we save Bonnie's life, if not...at least I'll be with her when she dies."

Pulling out a small glass bottle filled with a strange coloured liquid, Jerome rushed Jeremy, pouring some of the liquid into his mouth before anyone could stop him.

"Jeremy! What is that?!" Elena sped to Jeremy as he coughed and spluttered, Damon holding Jerome to the wall by his neck.

"Just a little insurance. See, I've grown quite fond of Kai and I'd hate for these disgusting emotion to be his downfall. So..." Jerome drawled calmly, gasping slightly as Damon increased the grip on his throat, "If Kai dies then you won't get the antidote to the poison I just fed lil bro. Your choice."

Damon dropped him to the ground, watching in satisfaction as Kai ran to help Jerome who was lying on the floor, inhaling deep breathes of air desperately.

"Jerome please! He's your brother, I'm your sister, please." Elena crouched by Jerome, begging.

"Sorry sis, but family means nothing to me, don't you remember what I did to our mommy and daddy?" Jerome laughed croakily, his throat bruising from Damon's grip.


	23. That was strangely pleasant

Jerome jumped on the sofa, spreading out comfortably as he watched Kai start to chant, Jeremy on the opposite sofa with his eyes close. Beds of sweet rolled down Kai's forehead as he change, the magic draining him. Jerome could hear Elena and Damon talking about the suicide pact, but he didn't bother to pay attention, his thoughts drifting as he stared at Kai intently.

Jerome had never felt much aside from humour and pain, he had never cared about anyone in his life, it was always his mission to protect itself. He laughed as he watched people cry and suffer, never feeling any empathy or remorse, so why did he care so much about Kai staying alive. The thought wouldn't leave him. He had never felt so much worry for someone, he could feel his chest tighten as he watched Kai's face contort in pain and stress.

He hadn't realised he had drifted into his own mind until he heard a painful gasp, snapping his eyes open to see Liv stood behind Kai who had a poker through his chest, Elena and Damon no where to be seen. His blood stemmed to run cold in that very moment, watching Kai gasp for life..

"Bitch." Pulling out his knife, Jerome ran at her, stabbing her in the side before she flung him away with magic, grasping at her wound.

"No! What are you doing? Jeremy woke up, angrily shouting at Liv who used her magic to throw him back next to Jerome, Jeremy crashing into the table and causing glass to shatter everywhere.

"Damn sis, that was harsh." Kai chuckled, sitting up from where he had fallen in pain, clutching his wound.

"Shut up." Liv raised her hand, Kai screaming in pain as she used her magic on him. Pushing himself up, Jerome glared at the blonde, throwing a piece of glass from the ground into her neck, watching with satisfaction as she stopped the spell to moan in pain.

Kai chuckled, getting to his feet as he grabbed a bottle of alcohol, "It's all coming back to me, Livie-poo. You know the charge..." Kai paused, throwing alcohol onto Liv and she pulled the piece of glass from her neck, wincing in pain.

"Stop it, Kai!" Liv cried in pain, Jerome simply stood to the side, thankful to finally see Kai back to his normal self.

"...That races through your bones at the prospect of watching someone burn to death."

"Stop it!"

"I really miss that feeling." Kai smiled, standing in front of Liv, grabbing a candle and handling it over her.

"Oo goody." Jerome clapped his hands, his eyes wide with excitement.

"Just kill me Kai. You already killed my best friend. So just do it. Get it over with." Liv whimpered, sounding utterly defeated.

"Why can't I do this? I don't care about you." Kai's voice trailed off, sounding on the verge of tears and Jerome immediately stopped his clapping, frowning.

"Come Kai, do it. Do it! Come on! Kill her!" Kai snapped, hitting his head as he fought against himself.

"Do it, Kai, she wants you to! Ugh, if you won't then I will." Jerome rolled his eye, stepping towards them only for Liv to throw her hand up, embedding a knife into Kai's chest, causing him to gasp and fall to the ground.

Jumping in front of Kai before Liv could stab him and finish him off, Jerome grabbed the sharp edge of her blade, grunting as he stopped it from coming down onto Kai, blood dripping down his wrist from his hand. Jeremy looked on with wide eyes, not expecting to see Jerome protect anyone but himself. Using the hand not holding the blade, he swiped out and knock her to the ground with a single punch, dropping the bloody knife into her shoulder before putting Kai's arm around his shoulder and helping to support him into the kitchen with Jeremy. Jerome thought he heard Kai mutter a "thanks" but chose to ignore it.

"Send me back, please." Jeremy spoke as soon as they had gotten Kai safely into the kitchen, leaning him against the kitchen counter as he bled out.

"Jeremy, look at me. I'm half dead." Kai coughed, barely able to stay conscious as Jerome put pressure on his wounds.

"I need to stop Bonnie."

"Okay." Kai sighed, looking down and nodding.

"No! It'll kill him." Jerome glared daggers at Jeremy, daring him to object.

"Only vampire blood can help him now, if you want to save him then let him do this and then we'll heal him. You've poisoned me, I'll die if he does, why would I risk that?"

"Oh yeah...the poison isn't real, sorry. Just had to keep sure you wouldn't kill Kai." Jerome shrugged, keeping his eyes on Kai and ignoring Jeremy who glared at him dangerously.

"J-jerome, its okay." Jerome growled, he hated to feel this weak and powerless.

Kai started to weakly chant, him and Jeremy falling unconscious as the spell worked. Jerome sat up alert when Kai started to shake, his blood pooling beneath him. Rushing to his side, he started slipping Kai's face, trying desperately to wake him up.

"What the hell?" Jerome flinched back as his hand on Kai's cheek started to glow red, a sharp pain stinging through him. His eyes widened when he realised that in Kai's weak state he had started to siphon the dark magic which resurrected Jerome.

"Oh I'm so gonna regret this." Rolling his eyes and sighing, Jerome reached forwards, placing both of his hands on either side of Kai's face. Groaning, he felt the pull and saw the red glow come from where their skin was touching. His skin felt like it was on fire, his blood boiling as he cried out, trying to ignore the pain. Elena and Damon ran into the room, both watching on with wide eyes as Jerome coughed up a bit of blood and Kai's eyes snapped open. Jeremy gasped awake, Elena cradling him as Jerome fell backwards exhausted.

"Ow."

"What happened?"Damon spoke up, walking forwards to give Kai his blood when seeing the blood all over him.

"Jerome?! What did you do?" Kai dated forwards once he was fully aware and healed, his gaze falling on an unconscious Jerome who had a trail of blood running out of his cracked lips.

Gasping painfully, Jerome woke up to a dim light above him, lifting his head confused he sat up and gazed around his surroundings. He was in a empty dorm room.

"Finally you're awake, what the hell were you thinking?" Kai's voice broke through the room as he entered through the door, he looked worried.

"What?"

"You made me siphon you, had it been any longer and you'd be dead. You're only alive as long as you have that magic keeping you alive." Kai sat next to him on the sofa, running his eyes over him to check his condition.

" I thought I had lost you for a second."

"Are these those emotions talking?" Jerome lent forwards frowning, why did Kai care about him, nobody cared about him.

Taking a deep breathe and before he could regret it, Kai jumped forwards, pressing his lips to Jerome's scarred ones. Jerome froze before he smirked into the kiss, biting at Kai's lip to deepen the kiss.

"Hmm that was strangely pleasant...do it again." Jerome broke the kiss, giggling insanely whilst Kai chuckled and kissed him again.


	24. MergeGoneWrong

Jerome rolled his eyes, banging harshly on the door as he supported Kai's weight against his side.

"Hey." Kai mattered weakly as Alaric opened the door.

"Ah ah. Not so fast." Jerome used his hand which wasn't around Kai's waist to stop the door from slamming in their face, budging it open so they could speak to an annoyed Alaric.

"Look, I know you hate me, but I really, really need to see my sister." Kai swallowed, sweat beading down his forehead, Jerome being the only thing stopping him from falling over.

"And I suggest you say yes or I'll, uh, stab you in the eye." Jerome giggled slightly.

"What are you doing here?" Alaric opened the door fully as Jo came around the corner, glaring at her twin with a murderous expression.

"I called to tell you I was sick and you hung up on me." Kai's expression looked like a puppy who had been kicked as he talked to his sister. Jerome didn't know if he wanted to laugh at the expression or murder someone as the expression belonged to Kai.

"That's because I have food poisoning. Did the sound of me vomiting on the other end of the line not clue you in?"

"Oo someone had their bitchy pills today." Jerome snorted, ducking slightly behind the door when Alaric stepped toward him threateningly.

"Look," Kai interviewed before anyone got hurt, "there's an issue I've been worried about since the merge, because we didn't really do it right. You know, the whole, 'you're not my twin, but hey that's okay, close enough' plan? But it worked, which is, you know, cool. Hey, I even a little bit nice now, in case you were wondering. "

"He is not kidding! We really need to get this fixed, I cant be the only psycho in town, that would be boring! On our way here he stopped me from running some old lady over, can you believe that?!" Jerome's eye widened comically as he leaned forwards as if he was telling some big secret, Alaric looking shocked and disgusted.

"But I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop, and well, I think its dropped. Because I'm-" Kai cut himself off, looking very sick as Jerome groaned annoyed.

"Ugh, not this again. Where's the bathroom? Ah too late." Jerome sighed, rolling his eyes as Kai jerked forward and vomited blood, clutching onto Jerome's arm for support.

"Oh god, Ric!"

"Here." Alaric passed him an empty vase to puke into as Jo covered her mouth in shock.

"I don't think you have food poisoning. I was supposed to merge my magic with you, but I got Luke's instead. Uh, now I'm defective, and I think that's why you're sick. I kind feel like I'm dying actually."

"You look it too." Jerome groaned out a laugh when Kai elbowed him in the stomach as he stood up for the comment.

"And if I die, so do you, dad, Liv and the rest of our dumb coven. So, could you please fix me? Like, now?"

"Any joint pain?" Kai mumbled his agreement from where he sat on the examination table, Jo shining a light in his eyes.

"Headaches?"

"Yup."

"Are you pregnant?"

Jerome gasped loud from where he leaned against the wall, pointing an causing finger at Kai, "are you cheating on me?!"

"Stop making jokes." Kai glared at the two of them whilst Alaric looked between them.

"You two are dating?!"

"Not now Ricky boy,I gotta go all Prince Charming and save my damsel siphoner from dying an excruciating death."

"I feel like I'm being scrunched from inside out." Kai rolled his eye at Jerome who simply winked back at him," this is kinda private, does your baby boo need to be here?"

"Does yours?" Jo snapped back as she continued to examine him.

"I'm not leaving her alone with you, so deal with it."

"Yeah, I kinda lack friends sooo...I'm just gonna stay here." Jerome spoke at the same time as Alaric.

"Okay, your vitals are fine. Your temperature is normal. I'll wait on pathology, but there's nothing medically wrong with you." Jo drawled out, her voice condescending.

"Duh, it's magical." Jerome rolled his eyes, his voice mocking her tone, "and you've not puked in-oh."

Kai cut Jerome off as he began to vomit blood, Jo hurriedly placing a trash bin under his mouth. Clutching onto her arm, he unknowingly began to siphon her magic as she groaned, Alaric rushing forwards to pull her away from him.

"Oh I feel better." Kai panted, sitting up straight.

"Yeah, because you juice boxed my magic!"

"Sorry, that was an accident. But I , wow I legitimately feel better." A look of realisation lit up Kai's face, "you need to give me your magic."

"What?" Jo questioned outraged.

"This faux merge is clearly failing because I was supposed to get your magic, right? I dunno, put it into a teddy bear or a bed pan or whatever and gimme."

Seeing Alaric move to grab Kai, Jerome darted forwards and placed his knife to Alaric's neck, effectively causing him to freeze in place.

"Now Jo Jo, you can either give Kai your magic so he's back to normal and we can leave orrr I could slice Ricky's throat, stab you and he will forcibly take you magic. No pressure though, it's your choice." Jerome's grinned innocently, waiting for her reaction.

"Oh and hey, if you want more motivation, if I die then the prison worlds collapse, which means bye bye Bonnie." Kai stepped towards Jo expectantly.

"I'm sorry, did you say prison worlds? As in more than one?"

"Oh, has no one mentioned that yet?" Kai mockingly smiled at Alaric.

Jo huffed, storming out of the room with Alaric on her tail.

"Jeez, someone pissed in their cheerios." Jerome giggled, helping Kai sit back on the table, jumping up to sit next to him.

"Let's do this." Jo announced as she reentered the room with Alaric.

"Me, our coven and the prison worlds thank you." Kai sighed happily, walking over to Jo whilst Jerome sat cross legged on the table bored.

"What exactly is this other prison world?"

"A place filled with crappy people like me, I'm sure." Kai grinned at Alaric before turning back to his sister, "congrats, you're saving their miserable lives from oblivion. Oh, don't look so stressed. You never liked being a witch anyway."

"Shut up." Jo shook Kai's hands off her face when he pinched her cheeks, placing her own palms on his face as she began to chant. Light flooded the room, surrounding the two siblings as a wind blew harshly, knocking papers from Jo's desk.

"It's done." Jo muttered, out of breath as the wind and light died down.

"Thank you. And congratulations." Kai sighed relieved, leaning in to whisper something ineligible into her ear, pulling back to see her surprised face, "have a good life, sissy."

"What did ya say to make Jo Jo all spooked?" Jerome skipped along with Kai as they exited the building.

"Sissy is having twins."

"Oo this just got interesting." Jerome burst into laughter, throwing his head back as he considered what was to come.


	25. NewOrleans

"I can't believe Bonnie made it out." Kai leaned against the door frame, watching as Damon began to rip off the chains from his mothers coffin, Jerome sat on the ground watching Bonnie's video from the prison world.

"She's plucky." Jerome tilted his head, his eyes glazed over as he remembered when they left Bonnie to die.

"Hey, do you need help? Oh, actually before you answer that, I'd rather not. I just keep experiencing these pangs of guilt watching you."

"Aw I thought when you got Jo's magic it would fix you and you would go back to not caring. This sucks." Jerome groaned.

"Feelings are hard." Kai nodded, agreeing with the red head.

"So is the end of this crowbar." Damon growled frustrated at the company around him.

"Is that a threat? I actually can't tell. If it is, then you wound me Day-Day, I thought you'd use better threats on us. " Jerome frowned at the raven haired vampire.

"I'm just saying, digging up mommys grave? It's dark, even for me." Kai walked up to Damon as he finished breaking the chains around the coffin.

"Do you make it a habit or digging up your parents graves? Maybe you should see a shrink cause that's, well, insane." Jerome jumped up and peered over Damons shoulder to see what was inside when Damon opened the coffins lid.

"It's totally unnecessary. Damon, Bonnie saw her alive in a 1903 prison world. It's on camera. You wanna watch it again?"

Damon grunted, snatching the camera from Jerome, "my mother died of consumption in 1858. We did not go through the trouble of moving this thing to the family crypt only to find out she's not even in here."

"Oh, so you just called us here because you needed a friend?"

"I'm touched, we're truly besties." Jerome threw his arm around Damons shoulders, giggling when Damon shoved it off angrily.

"You wanted to know if she could exist in another prison world, to which I responded yes, to which you responded with denial." Kai continued, trying to ignore the pang of jealously he felt when Jerome threw his arm around Damon.

"Whatever or whoever is on that tape, it's not her."

"Then who is it?"

"I dunno. A ghost? Maybe she has an evil Gemini twin."

"That would be hilarious!" Jerome grinned at Damon's mocking suggestion.

"If my mother was imprisoned in 1903, she'd be in her 70's."

"Not if she were like you." Kai muttered, rolling his eyes at Damon's blatant denial.

"I know my mother! She's not a vampire. She is not in a prison world. She died of consumption in 1858." Damon spun around, snarling out his words.

Sighing in annoyance, Jerome pushed past Damon and yanked the lid of the coffin, his tone filled with boredom, "then where's her body D?"

Damon glanced into the coffin, dread filled his eyes ad he looked like he as about to be sick.

"Congratulations. Everything you know about your mom is wrong." Kai patted Damon on the back, dragging a smirking Jerome out of the crypt with him.

"Ring me when you need me, I gotta go talk to someone." Jerome started to skip into the woods, pausing as Kai frowned and grabbed his arm gently.

"Talk to who? You've been dead for months, who could you possibly have to talk to?" Kai refused to admit it, but he didn't want Jerome to leave his side, having grown accustomed to having him around.

"Cult followers, blah, blah, blah."

"What? Jerome?" Kai stepped forward confused but Jerome just giggled and skipped off.

Huffing annoyed, Kai walked away, leaving Jerome to whatever he had to do.

"Brucey? Oh Brucey, you here?" Peeking his head into run down tents, Jerome's rough voice carried through the dead silence in the empty circus grounds.

"Y-Yes, sir?" Bruce slipped out of one of the tent, his shoulders hunched as he waited to for Jerome to speak, flinching slightly when Jerome giddily ran up to him.

"You found anyone cool?"

"I f-found some followers, they're in a nightclub called Gotham, it's part of the New Orleans underworld , sir. What do you want me to do next?"

"New Orleans? Hmm...never been. Isn't that where Elijah is? Oo haven't seen him in awhile...ah he thinks I'm dead. Shame. I'll have to pay a trip there once I've completed the deal with Kai." Jerome looked into the distance, as if remembering something before Bruce pulled him out of it.

"What deal, sir?"

"Doesn't matter. Go to the nightclub, let my oh so beloved followers know their leader has returned and keep an eye on one Elijah Mikaelson for me. Go on." Lazily waving his hand, he started to skip off, his mood brightening at the mention of an old friend.

Before he could reunite with anyone, he needed to help Kai eliminate the entire Gemini coven and then his sister. This was going to be fun.

A/N - I've started to plan the sequel to this book, as you might have guessed, it will take part in the originals. If you have any name suggestions feel free to comment. I won't say how just yet, but Kai will definitely be in the sequel. I am going slightly off canon for the ending. Not many chapters left.


	26. PrisonWorld2

After hearing Kai's plan to apologise to Bonnie and resolve himself of the guilt eating away at his new feelings, Jerome laughed and opted out, there was no way he was going to apologise for something he didn't regret. Even if he was capable of feeling regret, he still would not apologise, Jerome does not apologise. Making his way to the boarding house, he groaned and threw his head back annoyed. He liked Kai, he wouldn't want to kill him and that was rare for him, to feel anything let alone to actually like spending time with someone other than himself hardly ever happened. Even Elijah, who he would class as friend, he tried to kill multiple times only to find it was impossible. Liking someone who was acting like the Easter bunny was even worse, if Kai didn't go back to his usual sociopathic self soon he'd have to do something drastic.

Considering the multiple torture methods he could try, Jerome skipped into the boarding house, seeing everyone putting on heavy winter jackets. Seeing Kai struggle to zip the jacket, he let out a deep chuckle and moved to help him.

"No. What's he doing here? He's not coming." Damon was the first to speak up, glaring at the red head.

"Oh did I forget to mention? I only go if he does. Sorry." Kai shrugged unapologetic.

"Motus." Jerome gasped as he was sent into the wall, groaning as his back collided into the hard surface.

"Aw Bonnie I missed you too." Speaking with a hoarse voice as he struggled to catch his breath, letting out a wheezy chuckle when Elena immediately ran to Bonnie to stop her.

"Bonnie no!"

"If you kill him say goodbye to Carolines humanity." Kai's voice was rushed, panicked as he saw Jerome struggling to breathe against the magic.

"He's a monster." Bonnie growled, her eyes dark with hate.

"So am I and you need me so let him go." Jerome rose an eyebrow in interest, this was the first time Kai's voice was dark since the merge, his face stone cold. Kai looked like his usual self.

"Bonnie please." Elena grabbed Bonnies outstretched hand, pleading with her whilst Damon stood of to the side conflicted.

"Stop." Kai growled, rushing forward and grabbing Bonnie, draining her magic as Jerome fell to the floor coughing.

"Okay, okay lets be cool, yeah? Let just go to the prison world and get this over with." Damon finally stepped forwards, hands raised in surrender.

Letting go of her arm, Kai bent towards Bonnie's ear, his voice deadly, "don't touch him."

"Oo pretty." The tense silence was broken by Jerome rushing over to the pile of winter coats, plucking out a bright green one with a purple zipper.

"Damn. Crocodile Dundee called, he wants his knife back." Kai laughed, staring at the knife as Bonnie cut her hand.

"It's big isn't it?" Jerome smirked at Kai causing him to choke.

"Yeah you know, he's no longer a thing and neither is that joke." Bonnie drawled out annoyed, placing the knife in her jeans.

"Ouch."

"Hey, that's mine!" Jerome frowned, going to grab the knife, Bonnie pulling way at the last second.

"You really think I'm going to trust you with a knife?"Bonnie ignored Jerome's pouting, pouring her blood onto the ascendant in Kai's hand.

"Is this presentable attire for 1903 standards?" Elena questioned her outfit choice.

"Woah. Who said you're coming?" Damon stepped forwards, brow furrowed.

"To meet the women who gave birth to the two epic loves of my life? Me." Elena scoffed causing Jerome to roll his eyes at her antics.

"Powerful as I am, there's a limit to how many people I can transport with this spell." Kai interrupted before Elena and Damon could begin arguing.

"Which is why there two of us. Shall we?" Bonnie smirked in triumph.

"Fine, let's go get mom." Damon spoke, holding onto Elena as she grabbed Bonnie.

Kai began the spell, jumping slightly as he felt Jerome grab onto his ass, his voice squeaking as Jerome laughed and the others glared disgusted.

"Well, isn't this a picturesque slice of hell?" Damon questioned as they landed in a snowy forest.

"I dunno, I think hell will be hotter." Jerome's groaned, the cold air painful on his scars.

"You guys go ahead. We'll start the locator spell on the ascendant."

"But Kai just had the ascendant, why do we have to find another one?" Jerome rolled his eyes at Elena's stupidity.

"The ascendant can't travel between worlds. Which means we gotta find it's mirror image here in 1903."

"Page 10 of the world jumping rule book. Shall we?"

"I love your sarcasm Day Day."

"I don't want to leave you alone with them." Elena shook her head, looking between Bonnie and the two psychos worriedly.

"I'll be fine. He's good now remember? New leaf." Bonnie spoke sarcastically as they watched Kai hold his tongue out to catch snowflakes.

"And Jerome?"

"I can handle him Elena, he's only human."

"A mass murdering psychopathic human."

"Still only human." Bonnie nodded reassuringly at Elena who looked doubtful before walking off, Bonnie spinning back around to see Jerome stood in front of her with a sad puppy dog look on his demented face.

"I'm hurt Bon Bon."

"New leaf? You believe me?" Kai spoke up from behind Jerome, it being obvious that they had been listening in to the conversation.

"Hell no. But Damon and Elena need to meet his mom alone. So shut up, and let's find the ascendant." Bonnie's sharp tone caused Kai's face to fall, holding her hand out for the ascendant.

"Wait, why does dopplebitch need to be there? It's not her mom." Jerome tilted his head confused, following as Kai and Bonnie walked off.

"You have really nice palms." Bonnie glared at Kai's words, holding the ascendant as blood dripped from his finger, beginning to chant.

"Do you know why I'm here," Jerome coughed from his place sitting on a tree branch,"why we're here?"

"Because my guilt keeps my up at night. I-I don't expect you to believe me, but I need you to give me one more chance." Kai continued after correcting himself.

"Hey! If you continue with all that bullshit, I'm gonna hang my self from this tree."

"Bonnie, listen to me!" Kai ignored Jerome, harshly grabbing Bonnie's arm.

"I'm sorry I- oh my god I didn't mean to do that."

"But you did it anyway, because even if you're telling the truth, the old you is still inside you."

"Oo, that is spooky, that is exactly was I was thinking Bon Bon." Jerome giggled, sitting up on the sturdy branch to watch the exchange.

"The ascendant is this way."

"Catch me!" Jerome jumped from the tree gleefully as Bonnie began to walk away, Kai grunting as he caught him.

"The spell feels stronger here. The ascendant must be around here somewhere. " Bonnie looked around into the vast emptiness of the forest, no ascendant in sight.

"Why would the ascendant be here?" Kai questioned as Jerome frowned suspicious from his place on Kai's back, having convinced him that Kai needs to carry him for payment as he dragged him to this cold hell.

"If you don't think I'm capable of change why spend an entire day with me? Why bring me out to the middle of nowhere? I could gut you all over again... and your friends would never even hear you scream."

"Oo finally something exciting." Jerome jumped down, his face pulling into a large grin as his eyes dance with the threat of violence.

"Because maybe you're right. Maybe, deep down, there's a part of me that believes there's a sliver of good in you. You too, Jerome."

Jerome grinned mockingly, pointing his thumb to his chest as he looked around, silently asking "me??"

"Then you would be right." Kai chuckled walking off.

Jerome glared at Bonnie when he saw her pull the knife from behind her back. Rolling his eyes at what he was about to do, Jerome sighed and pushed Kai out of the way, Bonnie stabbing the knife into his stomach as he grunted in pain.

"Bonnie! What are you doing?!" Kai stumbled to get up from where he had fallen, Bonnie quick to stab him in the leg to stop him from getting up as Jerome chuckled weakly and grabbed his stomach.

"Gaining your trust, then stabbing you in the back. Feels pretty sucky doesn't it?" Bonnie screamed, brandishing the knife as the two tried to get up.

"Please, don't."

"Who knew you had it in you!" Jerome burst out laughing, lunging forward to grab the knife only for Bonnie to stab him once again.

"Ow." Jerome fell back, his blood staining the snow as he coughed.

"Motus!" Kai thrust his hand towards Bonnie, sending her flying backwards. Grabbing Jerome, he muttered a quick spell and they disappeared.

"Come on Jerome, not far, they're gonna leave without us." Hauling Jerome's weak arm around his shoulder, Kai limped through the forest, trying to find he group before they left.

"It doesn't matter." Jerome croaked, his head drooping as he staggered along, the blood loss getting to him.

"Bonnie!" Seeing the group becoming surrounded by light, Kai pushed on as he screamed for them, dragging a half conscious Jerome with him.

"Jerome!" Elena gasped, her eyes wide as she saw the state her brother was in before they vanished into the light, leaving Kai and Jerome alone.


	27. BreakingPoint

"Common Kai, you're the all powerful witch, how do you plan to get us the hell out of here? We still need to give your coven and my sister a painful death." Jerome clutched his stomach tighter as Kai worked his magic to try and get the blood flow to stop before he bled to death.

"I can't!" Kai snapped, growing frustrated as he struggled to save Jerome. After being betrayed by Bonnie and seeing Jerome close to death, his emotions were on the breaking point, anything could cause him to snap.

"Well ya got us here."

" I had Bonnie to help, I don't have enough magic on my own to do this, especially not from inside the prison world and all I have to help me is a group of dead vampires!"

"Then siphon me, get the hell out of here and murder my sissy for me...oh and Bonnie." Jerome's chuckled slightly, his face pale white.

"That would kill you." Kai froze at the idea.

"Well duh."

"No, we'll find another way." Kai closed his eyes and shook his head determined.

"Why? What other way? I'm already dying-ha-might as well get it over with. Always did want to go out with a bang. Third times the charm, right?" Jerome chuckled, blood seeping past his cracked lips as he spoke.

"Because I care about you okay?! Wish I could blame these stupid emotions, but I have since I met you and that's not normal for me. Okay? For the first time in my life I actually are about someone and I'm not gonna let you die." A tear rolled down Kai's face as he clenched his jaw shut.

"How sentimental."

"This isn't a joke, Jerome."

"Everything's a joke, Kai, I learned that a long time ago. If you're waiting me to profess my undying love to you, that ain't gonna happen. I do like ya though, which is strange. I look at your face and instead of wanting to rip it off, I wanna kiss it, which is new. So do me a favour, stop the gooey feely nonsense, siphon me and murder them all."

"You're insane." Kai shook his head, leaning forward and grabbing Jerome's face, pulling him into a final kiss.

Jerome's body jerked as their lips glowed red, the magic being sucked out of him into Kai. A long cut appeared on Jerome's neck, as if he had been stabbed. The stitches on his face faded until there were no blemishes, his skin looking as it did before he was resurrected for the first time. Putting everything into the kiss, Jerome collapsed, Kai catching him before he could hit the ground.

"I won't let you die." Kai ground his teeth, putting pressure on Jerome's neck as he swayed in and out of consciousness, starting to chant with the ascendant. A moment later they were in the present in Mystic Falls, sat on the forest floor with Kai cradling Jerome to his chest.

Looking up to see the Boarding House in the distance, Kai's eyes darkened as he stood, carrying a barely alive Jerome.

"Who's there?" A female voice rang through the room, her head turning in all i reactions as she looked for the intruder.

"Hello Mama Salvatore, my friend here really needs some blood." Appearing behind her, Kai magically snapped her neck.

Gently setting Jerome on the floor, he grabbed a knife and sliced open Lily's hand, letting her blood drip into Jerome's mouth.

"DRINK!" Growing frustrated when Jerome stopped moving, he grabbed the temporarily dead vampire, holding her above Jerome as he sliced her neck open, letting blood gush onto him and into his open mouth.

Seeing he slight movement, the slight swallow, Kai almost cried in relief. Throwing her to the side, Kai jumped to Jerome's side, feeling for a pulse as his wounds healed.

"No." Shaking his head in denial, Kai desperately felt for a pulse again, placing his head on Jerome's chest to listen to his unmoving heart.

"No!" Falling backwards, Kai stared wide eyed at the body, tears running from his eyes at a steady rate but he didn't care.

Jerome was dead.

Jerome was dead. Kai snapped.


	28. TheEnd

Everything felt like a blur to Kai. The wedding, killing Jo, cursing Elena, turning himself into a vampire. Nothing muttered to him. Since he turned himself into a vampire, his emotions went haywire. Being a vampire he managed to get rid of the pesky emotions like guilt that he got of Luke, however it also made his emotion towards Jerome stronger. He had planned to kill Elena and Bonnie, but after what happened to Jerome, he decided that death was too easy, therefore he created the curse.

Watching Damon abandon a dying Bonnie, watching him choose Elena over her, he felt a small about of relief as he watched Damon feel the same emotion that had been eating him alive since Jerome's death. Grief.

Feeling a gust of wind behind him, he turned to see Damon about to decapitate him, both their eyes widened as a pale hand bent Damon's back, breaking it and stopping him from killing Kai.

"Miss me?" The familiar smirk caused Kai to gasp, black veins bulging underneath his emerald eyes and his bright flame hair messy.

"What?"

"You died."

"Oh my god."

"Well..." Jerome latched his hand onto Kai's arm, stepping backwards, "see you crazy kids later."

Flashing out of the church using vampire speed, Jerome stopped once they reached the other side of Mystic Falls.

"Death really takes a lot out of ya! You didn't really think I'd just die did you?" Jerome laughed at Kai's shocked expression.

"I-" Kai cut him off before he could continue, vamp speeding him into a wall as he smashed their lips together.

"Hmm I'm hungry. Let's go find some innocent little human to murder and you can catch me up on what I missed when I was...asleep."

Kai grinned, his eye blackening to match Jerome's vampire appearance.

"Dunno why I never tried to become a vampire sooner, this is so fun!" Jerome's laugh echoed through the alley, multiple drained bodies at their feet.

"Vampirism suit you." Kai grinned, licking blood off his finger as he dropped the final body.

"I know. So sis is cursed, Damon is depressed, Bonnie is screwed, your coven is massacred and... don't really care about the others."

"What now then, the deal is over? No gonna leave are you?" Kai averted his eyes, worried about the answer.

"And leave ya? No. You're much too fun! But this dump of a town? Yes. I'm going to New Orleans, apparently the people love me there. Ooo I should introduce you to my cult! They're hilarious. So, you coming?" Jerome grinned excitedly.

"Hell yes."

The two laughed, making their way out of Mystic Falls as they headed for New Orleans, having no clue of the amount of chaos which was to come.

Either way, it was going to be fun.


	29. Sequel

I plan on creating a sequel to this book, it will take place during season one of The Originals.

It will be named The Original Psychos.

If anyone has any suggestions for scenes that you would really like to see happen, let me know.

I hope you enjoyed the first book!


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